
Class ~B X — - 

Book SL<° T\~/ 

Copyright N°_ 



COPITOGHI DEPOStT, 



THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 
HISTORICAL SKETCHES 



The Sodality of Our Lady 



Historical Sketches 

Compiled by 

AUGUSTUS DRIVE 

Priest of the Society of Jesus 

Tran slated by 
Two members of the Prima Primaria 




P. J. Kenedy & Sons 

Printers to the Holy Apostolic See 
44 Barclay Street, New York 



mm <Bbstat y \\(o 



A 1 



Remigius Lafort, S.T.D. 

Censor 



imprimatur 



►E< John Cardinal Farley 

Archbishop of New York 



New York, February 7th, 1916 



Copyright, 1916.. 
P. J. KENEDY & SONS. New York 



JUL -7 1916 



©CU433809 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Words op the Sovereign Pontiffs 9 

The Three Hundredth Anniversary in 1884 12 

Words of the Saints 16 

Words of the Jesuit Generals 23 

The Sodality in Various Places 25 

Beginnings 25 

Spread of Sodalities -29 

Sodalities in Italy 33 

The Sodalities at Naples 33 

The Sodality at Syracuse 35 

Later Sodalities at Naples 36 

The Sodality of Nobles at Rome 43 

The Sodality of Nobles at Palermo 44 

Modern Sodalities at Rome 46 

Sodalities in France 47 

Paris 47 

The Seminary for Foreign Missions 51 

Lyons 56 

Avignon 57 

Aix 58 

Rennes and other cities 58 

Rouen 59 

St. Acheul 63 

Caen 64 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Sodalities in Germany 80 

Fribourg in Switzerland 81 

Other Countries 83 

Cologne 85 

Ingolstadt 87 

Other Cities 89 

Sodalities in Poland 91 

Sodalities in Spain 98 

Barcelona 98 

The Spanish- American Sodality Congress of 1904. 101 

Sodalities in Portugal 104 

Sodalities in Belgium 105 

Antwerp 106 

Sodalities in Holland 109 

Sodalities in China Ill 

Sodalities in Paraguay 113 

Sodalities in Canada 114 

The Hurons 118 

Sodalities in Turkey 130 

Sodalities in Africa 132 

Prominent Sodalists 134 

Persecution 141 

Sodalities of Soldiers 142 

The Sodality's Results 146 

The Sodality's Holy Ones 148 

The Suppression op the Jesuits 152 

The Paris Sodality After 1800 153 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Sodalities of Women Before 1824 169 

Development of Sodalities After 1824 173 

Slander 175 

New Life 178 

Sodality Papers 181 

Sodality Congresses 185 



THE 
SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

WORDS OF THE SOVEREIGN PONTIFFS 

Few institutions, in the bosom, fruitful as it is, 
of the Catholic Church, have received such beau- 
tiful tributes of praise as the Sodality of the 
Blessed Virgin. Gregory XIII (Bull Omnipotentis 
Dei, Dec. 5, 1584), Sixtus V (1587), Clement VIII 
(1602) and Gregory XV (1621) took great pleasure 
in encouraging them, and Benedict XIV crowned 
the spiritual munificence of his predecessors by 
his "Golden Bull" Gloriosce Domince. 

After calling to mind in magnificent terms the 
purpose of St. Ignatius in forming his religious 
phalanx, he adds: " Among all the holy labors of 
their Institute, the Jesuits following a very saga- 
cious idea, already realized in a thousand places, 
have diligently undertaken to enroll youth in pious 
confraternities or sodalities of the Blessed Virgin, 
Mother of God; and, by inducing them to conse- 
crate themselves to the honor and service of her 



10 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

whom the Holy Ghost calls the Mother of Beau- 
tiful Love, of the Fear of God and of true knowl- 
edge, they help them to rise to the heights of Chris- 
tion perfection and lead them to the haven of 
eternal salvation. It is impossible to conceive of 
the influence these associations have exerted in all 
classes of society. 

"Some, who from their earliest years trod the 
way of innocence and piety under the protection 
of the Blessed Virgin Mary, preserved to the end 
an irreproachable conduct and deserved to crown 
their exemplary lives by final perseverance. 

"Others, tearing themselves away from the al- 
lurements of the vices which wretchedly enslaved 
them, and from the paths of iniquity in which they 
were entangled, brought back to the straight way 
by the assistance of the most clement Mother of 
God, began thereafter to lead a life of temperance, 
of justice and of piety. 

"Not a few, thanks to the tender devotion which 
they had conceived at an early age for the Mother 
of God, scaling the highest points of divine charity, 
and bravely abandoning the false goods and perish- 
able pleasures of this world, sought in the religious 
life a holier existence, and thus, less exposed and 
nailed to the cross with Jesus Christ through the 
vows of religion, devoted themselves altogether to 
the work of their own perfection and the salvation 
of souls. 

"We ourselves, in our own youth, were a mem- 



WORDS OF THE PONTIFFS 11 

ber of the Sodality of the Assumption in the Pro- 
fessed House of the Jesuits at Rome, and remem- 
ber with pleasure that we took part in the pious 
exercises of the Sodality to the great good and 
spiritual consolation of Our soul. We also regard 
it as a duty of Our pastoral charge to take under 
Our Apostolic protection and to encompass with 
Our favors, these nurseries, in which solid virtues 
grow and which serve so powerfully in the forma- 
tion of Christian youth and the salvation of 
souls." 1 

At the time of the tercentenary of the canonical 
erection of the Prima Primaria (1884), His Holi- 
ness Pope Leo XIII, formerly a Sodalist at the 
Roman College, expressed also his kindly feeling 
towards Sodalities: 

"Among all the associations abundant in fruits 
of salvation," he says, "which have been established 
throughout the entire world in honor of the 
Blessed Virgin, Mother of God, the one which in- 
disputably occupies the first place, is the Sodality 
called Prima Primaria. This Sodality, always re- 
markable for the number of its associates, de- 
veloped so rapidly, that it was not long before it 
spread to the extremities of the world ; so that even 
in our days, it counts affiliations in all, even the 
most distant countries." 2 

1 From the Bull Gloriosce Domince, 27 Sept., 1748. 

2 Brief Frugiferas inter, 27 May, 1884. 



12 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

The Three Hundredth Anniversary in 1884 

As we have mentioned the tercentenary of the 
foundation of the Prima Primaria, we shall take 
the liberty to recall in passing with what magnifi- 
cence it was celebrated at Rome. From the pomp 
displayed on this occasion, one can better judge 
the importance of this institution of Sodalities, 
the history of which we are going to describe. 

"On the day after the feast of the Immaculate 
Conception," wrote an eye-witness, "the jubilee of 
the tercentenary of the Primaria opened here. On 
the eve of the feast, more than 18,000 people 
thronged the vast nave of the Gesu. The beautiful 
church of St. Ignatius was adorned, for the open- 
ing of the centenary, as on its greatest feast days. 
The Roman decorators sought to surpass them- 
selves. The Sodalists offered, for the expenses of 
the celebration, the considerable sum of 8,000 francs. 
Two hundred chandeliers with their 2,000 candles, 
transform the dome into a radiant firmament. A 
picture, over 50 feet high, reproducing the image 
of Mary venerated in the chapel of the Prima 
Primaria, stands out against an immense purple 
hanging, above the main altar. In the choir are 
arranged the chairs intended for the dignitaries and 
for the representatives of the different Roman So- 
dalities. In the sanctuary there is a place reserved 
for the General of the Jesuits. 

"The students of the German College are in 



WORDS OF THE PONTIFFS 13 

charge of the ceremonies the first day; the second 
is reserved for the students of the South Ameri- 
can College ; and for the third, representatives from 
all the nations will be chosen. The greatest artists 
of the Roman basilicas have come together to exe- 
cute, in Mary's honor, the most beautiful pieces of 
their repertory. The services last easily three or 
four hours, and yet no one finds them long. The 
music, the lights, the piety of those present, all make 
you forget that the hours are slipping by. In 
Heaven we shall never be weary. Celebrations like 
this have indeed something which is of Heaven." 

These details are concluded as follows by the 
correspondent of the Belgian paper he Bien Pub- 
lique of Ghent. 

"Here, at Rome, for the last four days, the ter- 
centenary of the Sodalities of the Blessed Virgin 
has been celebrated. Even in these times, many il- 
lustrious names are enrolled on the lists of the 
Sodalities. Add on to this the goodwill with which 
the Sovereign Pontiff, formerly [in 1829] a member 
himself of the Prima Primaria, welcomes all that 
is done to unite Christian youth in associations of 
prayer and charity; the magnificence which has 
been displayed in that large and beautiful church 
of St. Ignatius, where the celebrated frescoes of 
Brother Pozzi and the precious marbles in the light 
of 200 candelabra shine with a new splendor; the 
presence of many eminent members of the episco- 
pate and the Roman court at the jubilee cere- 



14 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

monies ; and you will not be surprised at the throng 
which crowded to the centenary celebrations of the 
Sodality. On Sunday the fourteenth, the last day 
of the triduum, Mgr. Schiaffino sang the Pontifical 
Mass and preached a superb discourse, which we 
earnestly hope will be published. A synopsis could 
give one but a feeble idea of its worth: faith, love 
for the Blessed Virgin, and the noble prelate's af- 
fection for the Society of Jesus gave magnificent 
emphasis to his eloquent words. 

"The Sovereign Pontiff, whose laborious days 
render access to him very difficult, deigned to ac- 
cord a private audience to Rev. Fr. Sanguinetti, 
Director of the Primary Sodality of Rome, as well 
as to the Marquis Serlupi, Commander Saint- 
Mihiel and Chevalier Centamori, its chief digni- 
taries. The Holy Father recalled the joy and con- 
solation of the years he spent in the Roman Col- 
lege: he recalled among others a Latin discourse 
which he delivered in honor of St. Aloysius Gon- 
zaga and some theses which he sustained at this 
University; he had had the pleasure of finding 
them again in the Vatican library. He spoke of 
the Sodality (what could he say that would be 
more encouraging than the statements he had re- 
corded in the last jubilee Brief?) ; he spoke at 
great length about the theological and philosophical 
studies of the Roman College. 'I am truly pleased/ 
he said, 'with the Gregorian University; it cannot 
do better work than it is doing in our day.' 



WORDS OF THE PONTIFFS 15 

" 'Most Holy Father/ answered Fr. Sanguinetti, 
'it would be a most precious encouragement for the 
Professors of the College, to repeat to them the 
benevolent words of Your Holiness.' 

" 'I permit you/ resumed the Pope, 'to tell them 
in my name that I am entirely satisfied with the 
Professors, satisfied with the results obtained from 
their teaching, very satisfied with the number of 
their students; for I have learned with great pleas- 
ure that their classes are full; solid and thorough 
instruction is given in them.' He added still more 
praises and left the Director and the chief digni- 
taries of the Primary under the charm of his 
august benevolence." 



WORDS OF THE SAINTS 

The Saints in their turn were never tired of 
praising the advantages of Our Lady's Sodalities. 
Their vindication by St. Alphonsus de Liguori 1 is 
celebrated: it will stand as a splendid example of 
all the others. 

"Certain people," says the holy Doctor, "disap- 
prove of Confraternities because they sometimes 
give rise to quarrels and because many join them 
for temporal motives. But, as churches and the 
Sacraments are not condemned because there are 
many who make bad use of them, neither should 
the Sodality. The Sovereign Pontiffs, so far from 
condemning them, have approved and highly com- 
mended them, and also enriched them with many 
Indulgences. 

"St. Francis de Sales, in the Introduction to a 
Devout Life, 2 earnestly exhorts seculars to join 
them. 

"What pains, moreover, did not St. Charles Bor- 
romeo take to establish and multiply these Sodali- 
ties? In his synods, he particularly recommends 
Confessors to engage their penitents to join them. 
And with good reason, for Sodalities, especially 

1 Glories of Mary, II. 7. 
3 II. 15. 

16 



WORDS OF THE SAINTS 17 

those of the Blessed Virgin, are so many Noah's 
arks, in which poor seculars find a refuge from 
the deluge of temptations and sins which inundate 
the world. We, from the experience of our Mis- 
sions, well know the utility of these Sodalities; as 
a rule, a man who does not attend the meetings of 
a Sodality commits more sins than twenty men 
who attend them. A Sodality can well be called a 
'tower of David ; a thousand bucklers hanging upon 
it — all the armor of valiant men.' 3 The reason 
why the Sodalities do so much good is, that in 
them the members acquire many weapons of de- 
fense against hell, and put into practise the re- 
quisite means to preserve Divine Grace, which are 
seldom made use of by seculars who are not mem- 
bers of these Sodalities. 

"In the first place, one means of salvation is to 
meditate on the eternal truths: 'Remember thy 
last end and thou shalt never sin.' 4 How many are 
lost because they neglect to do this ! • 'With deso- 
lation is all the land made desolate because there 
is none that considereth in his heart.' 5 But those 
who attend the meetings of their Sodalities are led 
to think of these truths by many meditations, lec- 
tures and sermons they hear there, as the Good 
Shepherd said: 'My sheep hear my voice.' 8 

3 Cant. IV. 
*Eccli. VII. 
5 Jer. XII. 
8 John X. 



18 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

"In the second place, to save one's soul prayer is 
necessary: 'Ask and you shall receive.' 7 This the 
members of Confraternities do constantly. God 
also hears their prayers the more readily, for He 
says Himself that He grants graces more willingly 
to prayers offered up in common: 'If two of you 
shall consent upon earth, concerning anything what- 
soever they shall ask, it shall be done to them by 
my Father who is in Heaven.' 8 On which St. Am- 
brose says: 'Many who are weak, when united 
become strong; and it is impossible that the prayers 
of many should not be heard. Many little ones, 
while gathered together in spirit, become powerful; 
it is impossible that the prayers of many should not 
be granted.' 

"In the third place, in Confraternities the Sacra- 
ments are more likely to be frequented, both on 
account of the rules and of the example which is 
given by the other members. And thus persever- 
ance in grace is more easily obtained, because the 
sacred Council of Trent has declared that Holy 
Communion is 'an antidote whereby we may be 
freed from daily faults and preserved from mortal 
sins.' 

"In the fourth place, besides the frequentation 
of the Sacraments in Confraternities, many acts 
of humility and charity towards sick members and 
the poor are performed. Well would it be if this 

'John XIV. 
8 Matth. XVIII. 



WORDS OF THE SAINTS 19 

holy custom of assisting the sick poor of the place 
were introduced in all Confraternities. 

"It would also be of the greatest advantage to 
introduce the Secret Sodality, composed of the 
more fervent members, in honor of the Divine 
Mother herself. 9 

"I will here give in a few words, the most usual 
exercises of the Secret Sodality: 1. Half an hour's 
spiritual reading; 2. Vespers and Complin of the 
Holy Ghost are said; 3. The Litany of the Blessed 
Virgin, and the members whose turn it is, perform 
some act of mortification, such as carrying a cross 
on their shoulders, and the like; 4. They make a 
quarter of an hour's meditation on the Passion of 
Jesus Christ; 5. Each one accuses himself of the 
faults he has committed against the rules and re- 
ceives a penance from the Father; 6. A member 
reads out the little flowers of mortification per- 
formed during the past week; and then announces 
the novenas which occur, etc. At the end, they 
take the dicipline during the space of a Miserere 
and a Salve Regina, and then each one goes to kiss 
the feet of a Crucifix placed for this purpose on 
the step of the altar. The members' rules are: 1. 
To make mental prayer every day; 2. To pay a 
visit to the Blessed Sacrament and the Blessed Vir- 
gin; 3. To make the examination of conscience in 
the evening ; 4. Spiritual reading ; 5. To avoid plays 

'The term secret formerly had no unpopular meaning; it 
did not indicate a secret character, but simply a selectness. 



20 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

and worldly conversations ; 6. To frequent the Sac- 
raments and perform some little acts of mortifica- 
tion, such as the little chain, discipline, etc.; 7. To 
recommend to God each day the souls in Purgatory 
and sinners; 8. When a member is ill, the others 
are to visit him. 

"But now let us return to our point. 

"In the fifth place, we have said how profitable 
it is to our salvation to serve the Mother of God, 
and what else do the members do in Sodalities but 
serve her? How much is she not praised there! 
How many prayers are not there offered to her! 
From the very beginning, the members are conse- 
crated to her service, and they choose her in an 
especial manner for their sovereign Lady and 
Mother; they are inscribed in the book of the 
children of Mary; hence as they are her servants 
and children in an especial manner, they are treated 
in a special manner by her, and she protects them 
in life and in death. So that a member of a So- 
dality of Our Lady can say: 'Now all good things 
came to me together with it.' 

"Each member should therefore pay attention 
to two things; First of all, to the object he should 
have in view, which should be no other than to 
serve God and His Mother Mary, and to save his 
soul; secondly, not to allow worldly affairs to pre- 
vent his attendance on the appointed days, for he 
has there to attend to the most important business 
he has in the world, which is his eternal salvation. 



WORDS OF THE SAINTS 21 

He should also endeavor to draw as many others 
as he can to join the Sodality, and especially to 
bring back those members who have left it. Oh, 
with what terrible chastisements has Our Lord pun- 
ished those who have abandoned the Sodality of Our 
Blessed Lady! There was a Sodalist who did so at 
Naples, and when he was exhorted to return, he an- 
swered: 'I will do so when my legs are broken and 
my head cut off.' It was a prophecy he made, for a 
short time afterwards some enemies of his broke 
his legs and cut off his head. 10 

"On the other hand, the Sodalists who persevere 
have both their temporal and spiritual wants pro- 
vided for by Mary. 'All her domestics are clothed 
with double garments.' Father Auriemma relates 
how many special graces Mary grants to members 
of the Sodality both in life and in death, but more 
particularly in death. 11 Father Crasset gives an 
account 12 of a young man who, in the year 1586, 
was dying. He fell asleep; but afterwards waking 
he said to his Confessor: 'Oh, Father! I have been 
in great danger of damnation, but Our Blessed Lady 
rescued me. The devils presented my sins before 
Our Lord's tribunal; they were already preparing 
to drag me to hell ; but the Blessed Virgin came and 
said to them: 'Where are you taking this young 
man? what business have you with a servant of 

"Saraelli, Cong., P. I. 
"40F.II.4. 

13 Ver. dev. II. 



22 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

mine, who has served me so long in my Sodality?' 
The devils fled, and thus was I delivered from their 
hands.' 

"The same author also relates that another mem- 
ber also at the point of death, had a great battle 
with hell; but at length, victorious and filled with 
joy, he exclaimed: 'Oh! what a blessing it is to 
serve Our Holy Mother in her Sodality!' and thus 
filled with consolation, he expired." 



WORDS OF THE JESUIT GENERALS 

After such words of praise, it is not surprising 
that the Generals of the Jesuits warmly commend 
the Sodality. 

"It is a leaven," said Father Mutius Vitelleschi, 
"a pure and powerful leaven, which the Queen of 
Heaven puts in the midst of Catholic youth. . . . 
It is powerful itself and operates on all"; he ex- 
pected from it "abundant graces and infinite bless- 
ings," and he exhorted all Superiors "not to neglect 
this powerful support of Colleges, if they did not 
wish to see them degenerate and go to ruin; but 
rather to promote the association with the greatest 
possible care and to consecrate to it the best forces 
of the Order, even as far as to lay other works aside 
for the advancement of this one; for nothing greater 
can be done for the glory of God than what is 
done for young people by the Sodality." * 

Not long ago, Rev. Father Anderledy, one of the 
last Generals of the Order, by his commentary 
on the Encyclical Hamanum Genus of His Holiness 
Leo XIII, rekindled the zeal of all his Religious 
on this subject. After a very concise summary of 
the history of the Sodalities, he concluded in these 

"Encyclical letter of 1631. 

23 



24 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

terms: "Let us remember how much in former 
times our Society achieved through the means of 
the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary: let us 
strive to multiply these pious associations with all 
the influence and activity of which we are capable 
and there is no doubt but that the same efforts will 
again produce the same results." 2 

2 June 8th, 1884. 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 

Beginnings 

Like the majority of great works, the Sodality 
of Our Lady had a most modest beginning. The 
mustard seed was to become a great tree. 

In the year 1563, Father John Leunis was Pro- 
fessor of Grammar at the Roman College. God 
had reserved for him the mission of implanting 
the pious association of the Sodality of Our Lady 
in the Eternal City, whence it was destined, like 
a propitious star, to shine upon the whole world. 

After living until the following year in Rome, 
Father Leunis was sent to Perugia and later on to 
Paris, where he spread with the same success the 
devotion to Our Lady. He founded at the Jesuit 
College of Billom a Sodality which numbered 
among its members Father James Sales, martyr of 
the Holy Eucharist, in 1593. Father Sales is one 
of the first martyrs of the Sodalities of Our Lady. 1 

1 Father Gervase Celi, S J., deals exhaustively with this 
question in the March issue of the Stella Matutina of 1907. 
Here is his conclusion: "Father Sales is therefore one of 
the Martyrs of the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin. But I 
think it can be positively asserted that he is the first martyr 
of the Sodality. Historians, it is true, count among its 

25 



26 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

In 1569, Father Leunis was appointed by his 
Superiors to bring assistance to the Catholic sol- 
diers, then cruelly tried by the religious wars, in 
the neighborhood of Lyons, and finally he died 
piously at Turin in 1584. 

In the year 1564, the students of the Sodality 
founded the year before, 70 in number, the flower 
of the Roman College, placed themselves under the 
special protection of Mary, and it was this same 
year that the first rules of their association were 
drawn up. Here are the regulations in substance: 2 

"The Sodalists had for aim progress in piety and 
in studies. Every week they approached the 
tribunal of Penance, so as to purify their hearts 
from the least stain and thus make themselves 
agreeable to their Immaculate Patroness. At least 

heroes who have given their lives to Jesus Christ, Blessed 
Edmund Campion, put to death in London in 1581, and 
Blessed Rudolph Aquaviva, martyred at Salsette in 1583, 
twelve and ten years respectively before Father Sales. But 
these two Blesseds can only claim the title of Sodalists in 
its broadest sense; that is to say as Sodality Directors, for 
they were already Religious of the Society of Jesus. 
Campion directed the Sodality of Prague, and Aquaviva 
that of the German College at Rome. Father Sales was a 
Sodalist in the strict sense of the word, and until new dis- 
coveries are made which may weaken the opinion I express, 
it seems to me that Sales may be regarded as the first 
Sodalist to dye with his blood the Album of the Sodalities 
of the Blessed Virgin." 

2 The following summary is taken from Delplacb, History 
of the Sodalities of the Blessed Virgin. 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 27 

every month they received the Holy Eucharist. 
Every day they assisted at Holy Mass and said 
either the Rosary or certain prayers from the 
Manual of the Sodality. When the classes were 
over, before leaving the College, they meditated for 
a quarter of an hour on some pious subject, and, 
for a second quarter of an hour, they considered 
their good resolutions. 

"On Sunday, after the chanting of Vespers and a 
short exhortation given by the Father Director, 
they either visited the hospitals to console the 
sick, or did other works of charity. A Prefect and 
twelve officers shared the care of helping their 
young fellow-scholars by their advice; a Jesuit 
Father presided over all their exercises." Such are, 
according to Sacchini, the rules which at the start 
directed the pious assembly, in almost every detail. 
Sacchini added in 1630, "they are still observed 
to-day." s 

The great advantage of these reunions, as the 
same author remarks, was that, united with each 
other by the bonds of piety and of zeal, the students 
avoided dangerous companions and thus escaped 
one of the most perilous temptations of youth. 
Experience was to show that it was a work in- 
spired by grace, for progress in studies as well as 
for advancement in virtue. 

In 1567, the Sodality held its meetings in the 
Church of the Annunciation. This little Church 

3 History of the Society of Jesus, II. no. 37. 



28 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

was begun by the charity of a niece of Paul IV, 
Lady Victoria Tolfa Orsini, who presented her 
work to the Roman College in 1562. The Cardinal 
of Augsburg, Otto Truchses, laid the corner stone 
with great solemnity. It was this sanctuary of 
Mary which St. Aloysius Gonzaga used to visit 
several times each day during four whole years; 
here it was that he shed such abundant tears dur- 
ing the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, here that he 
became absorbed so often in sublime prayer. As 
the Church was his favorite during his stay in the 
Roman College, it kept his precious relics from 
June 15, 1620, to Aug. 2, 1649. Above the central 
nave is the present Chapel of the Prima Primaria. 

In 1569, the Sodality was divided into two parts. 
One, which afterwards bore the name of Secunda 
Primaria, included all the students under eighteen 
years of age; the other, called the Prima Primaria, 
brought together the rhetoricians, philosophers and 
theologians. 

The members of the Senior Sodality of the 
Roman College, rhetoricians, philosophers and theo- 
logians, formed in 1569 the first Literary Academy 
which is mentioned in the history of the Jesuit Col- 
leges. This style of reunion, therefore, so instru- 
mental in promoting studies and so calculated to 
stimulate the ambition of Students, owes its origin 
to the Sodality of Our Lady. This fact explains 
why the Ratio Studiorum or Course of Studies, later 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 29 

on, usually required those applying for entrance 
into the Academy to be already Sodalists. 

From time to time, especially on the principal 
feasts of Our Lady, the Senior Academy gave 
solemn literary sessions (a custom still in force 
to-day) for the good of souls and progress in polite 
letters. 

Spread of Sodalities 

Thanks to the zeal of the Jesuit Fathers, the idea 
of the Sodality spread over the greater part of 
Europe. 

In the first class of remarkable founders and zeal- 
ous directors shine resplendently Father Francis 
Coster, in Belgium and Germany; Father Edmund 
Auger, in France; the Venerable Father James 
Rem, in Bavaria; in Italy, Father Anthony Spinelli, 
who, in less than forty years, counted in different 
Religious Orders more than four hundred former 
members of his Sodality of Our Lady Immaculate; 
In Sicily Father Sebastian Cabarrasi, whose emi- 
nent sanctity has been highly praised by Fathers 
John Rho, James Riela, Sacchini and Jouvency. 
God often favored him with special graces. Every 
Saturday after the evening class, he used to gather 
the best of his scholars at Mary's feet, then made 
them pray in common and spoke to them, as only 
saints know how, of the dignity and mercy of the 
Queen of Heaven. This example was followed by 
many of his colleagues with astonishing results; 



30 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

for example, in the space of one month, these 
nascent Sodalities gave forty-eight novices to dif- 
ferent religious orders. 4 

In Sicily also Father Peter Villafrate, who had 
the joy of seeing as many as seven hundred of the 
members of his Sodality, called that of Fervor, en- 
ter the various novitiates of Sicily: an example 
which, after the death of the pious Religious, was 
followed by several thousand other Sodalists. 
Blessed Canisius started a Sodality in Fribourg, 
Blessed Campion at Prague, the celebrated Maldo- 
natus at Pont-a-Mousson. Later on, Father Ed- 
ward Scarisbrick, first preacher at the court of 
Queen Mary, and then chaplain to James II, man- 
aged to introduce it secretly into England. 

Attention has just been called to the great num- 
ber of Sodalists who, in Italy, passed from the 
world to the cloister. This phenomenon recurred 
everywhere, and the Sodalities of Mary have been 
justly surnamed nurseries of vocations. Let us 
give some statistics in corroboration. 

In 1581, the College of Douai furnished the So- 
ciety of Jesus with 30 novices; in 1594, it gave 11; 
in 1596, 12; in 1611, as many as 90 students begged 
admission into various Religious Orders, and of 
this number 24 entered the family of St. Ignatius. 
At Naples, 30 Religious vocations are found in 1582, 
and 21 in 1584. In the space of one year, the Col- 
lege of Rouen gave 20 novices to the Society and 

* Alberti, History of the Province of Sicily. 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 31 

10 to other Orders, and the one at Amiens, under 
the direction of Father James Bordier, presented 
more than 40. In 1611, Louvain had 800 Sodalists; 
60 took the Religious habit. The same year, Avig- 
non sent 45 of its students into different Religious 
communities. Antwerp gave 36 in 1612, and 60 in 
1628. Now, with very few exceptions, all these 
aspirants to the Religious life were Sodalists. If 
this account were continued, it might easily be 
proved that the proportion was nearly as large in 
all the big Jesuit Colleges: at Paris, at Pont-a- 
Mousson, at Toulouse, at Lyons, at Rouen, at 
Palermo, on the banks of the Rhine, in Germany 
as well as in Poland. 

As Father Letierce rightly remarks, this great 
number of vocations is not astonishing, the Divine 
seed falling from Heaven found souls prepared to 
receive it. Soon it developed into good desires, into 
generous aspirations; strengthened by an intelli- 
gent training, it was not long in bearing fruit. 
Hence the abundant harvest of Religious vocations, 
where all the Religious Orders came to gather their 
sheaves. 5 

Of the two hundred colleges of the Society 
about the year 1600, there was not a single one 
which did not have its Sodality of the Blessed Vir- 
gin. To-day the entire world is covered with a 
network of Sodalities. We reproduce a statement 
from the Archives of the Prima Primaria of the 

6 Manual of the Children of Mary, p. 62. 



32 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

number of diplomas of affiliation which it has given 
since its foundation: 

From Jie year 1584 to 17 May, 1824. . 2,928 
From 17 May, 1824, to 8 Dec, 1854. . . 4,027 
From 8 Dec, 1854, to 8 Dec, 1904. . . . 22,364 
From 8 Dec, 1904, to 8 Dec, 1914. . . . 10,917 6 

Passing beyond the precincts of the Colleges, 
the Sodalities spread rapidly, as soon as Sixtus V 
opened their doors to all classes of society. 7 Men 
of every rank and condition were seen crowding to 
it; Priests and nobles, employees and employers, 
magistrates, soldiers, artists, merchants, appren- 
tices, peasants. "What marvels," said Sacchini, 
"God graciously deigned to work by this means — 
reconciliations, relief of physical sufferings, defense 
of the oppressed, restoration of order and harmony 
in families! Success absolutely unhoped for in- 
duced them to multiply these very successes. The 
older Sodalists, with firmer and more formed char- 
acters, obtained results which surpassed those pro- 
duced by the student Sodalities. The entire house- 
hold, moreover, benefited, and the state as well, by 
the improvement of the head of the family: be- 

6 These numbers are from the Registers at Rome. They 
are, however, incomplete, as many as 10,000 Sodalities un- 
fortunately not having been reported for entry on the 
books (Ughi, Summarium Libri Statistici, 1915). 

7 Bull of 5 Jan., 1587. 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 33 

cause the whole of society profits by the perfection 
of the individual. 8 



Sodalities in Italy 

The Sodalities at Naples 

Everywhere Catholics rivaled each other in zeal. 
Flourishing Sodalities revived in Italy the faith of 
the early ages. Rome and Milan had several, and 
as early as 1613, Naples boasted of 18, 12 of which 
held their meetings at the College, 5 at the Pro- 
fessed House and 1 at the Novitiate. 

At the College, let us note those of the philo- 
sophers, the students, the doctors and the lawyers. 
The Clerics' Sodality founded in 1611 by Father 
John Pavone, soon numbered 400 members, amongst 
whom were canons of the cathedral of Naples, 
Rectors, Abbots and Superiors of several monaster- 
ies, with a great number of Religious, lastly the 
Papal Nuncio and the Cardinal Archbishop, whose 
example was followed within the space of a few 
years by more than 120 Bishops; these prelates 
made it a duty to attend the meetings, as far as 
the obligations of their office permitted them to do 
so. Several Generals of Orders and 16 Cardinals 
in later years came from this Sodality. Before the 
death of its founder, it had branched out into 90 
auxiliaries in the kingdom of Naples alone. This 

9 Hist, of the Soc. of Jesus, V. 7, no. 1. 



34 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

fervent servant of Mary had also founded Sodali- 
ties for gardeners, for porters and for schoolmas- 
ters. The Cardinal Archbishop of Naples, sur- 
rounded by numerous prelates, presided at his 
funeral held in the presence of a wonderful throng 
of the faithful in 1637. 

Among the young Priests who held their meetings 
at the Professed House there was a most favored 
group, the Oblates, who had devoted themselves in 
a closer manner to the service of Mary, so as to 
acquire the perfection of priestly virtues. Those 
parishes were indeed fortunate which were directed 
by such well trained pastors. 

The nobles and the magistrates, moreover, as- 
sembled at the Professed House, and distributed 
every year the sum of 2,000 pieces of gold to the 
poor of the higher classes. In a different apart- 
ment, into a Sodality for them, the servants of these 
gentlemen were received. At the Novitiate, the re- 
unions of the sailors and fishermen were held : these 
worthy fellows, who in 1613 numbered two hun- 
dred, were the admiration of the town for their 
correct life. 9 

In 1631, this same city of Naples had reason to 
rejoice at the devotedness of the Sodalists in a 
critical circumstance. An eruption of Vesuvius 
had alarmed all the surrounding country; no fewer 
than ten thousand fugitives invaded the Neapolitan 
city, imploring shelter and bread from the public 

"Spinelli, Maria Dei-para, XL. 13. 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 35 

charity. The civil administration was at the last 
extremity. The Sodalities of Our Lady came to its 
rescue, and, among them all, that of the Immacu- 
late Conception was remarkable for its work; it 
alone lodged and fed at its own expense, in the 
Hospital of St. Januarius without the walls, more 
than sixteen hundred of those in need. 

The Sodality at Syracuse 

At the time of a similar disaster, the Sodality of 
the Mortified, which Father Anthony Filippazzi di- 
rected at Syracuse, accomplished prodigies of char- 
ity. 

Towards the last days of August, 1619, the Sicil- 
ian fleet, badly damaged in a naval battle, was 
forced to take refuge in the port of Syracuse. The 
ships were filled with sick and wounded, and there 
was no place in the town ready to receive them. 
In this extremity, Father Filippazzi proffered his 
own and his Sodality's services in aid of the un- 
fortunate men. Under his direction, three vast 
hospitals constructed of timber were at once erected, 
where the sick having been brought ashore were 
installed. Then the Sodalists went about the town 
begging for mattresses, linen, bed clothes, food and 
remedies of all sorts; they nursed these poor 
wretches tenderly and performed for them all the 
duties of the most humble charity. Only a few 
died from their wounds, but these were surrounded 
by all the aids of religion; the others never ceased 



36 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

loudly proclaiming that they owed their recovery, 
in a great measure, to the charitable Jesuit and his 
Sodalists. 10 

Later Sodalities in Naples 

Towards the end of the XVIIth century, the 
whole town of Naples might well have admired a 
Sodality of simple workingmen, an auxiliary of St. 
Francis Hieronymo in his apostolic work. They 
were called the Brothers of the Mission. "It was 
like a holy legion, always at war with the demon, 
which under the orders of that admirable Director, 
advanced everywhere, summoning the idle to the 
sermon, grouping the hearers about the cross in the 
public squares, preaching by example penance and 
humility, and drawing from their very zeal the 
principle of their own progress." 1X 

By means of the Sodality, it was easy to hold in 
your hand, so to speak, an entire city for the great- 
est profit of religion and the state. Here, for ex- 
ample, is how the different classes of society, at 
Messina, were divided into fifteen Sodalities. 

The first, that of the rhetoricians and humanists, 
numbered a thousand members; the second, the 
nobles, founded in 1582, was under the patronage 
of the Annunciation: it looked after poor debtors; 
the master-workmen formed the third, called the 
Sodality of the Purification; the fourth, the So- 

10 Aguilera, II. 79. 

11 Delplace, p. 127. 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 37 

dality of the Nativity of Our Lady, embraced the 
workingmen already skilled in their trade, and the 
fifth, under the same title, received the appren- 
tices. The Sodality of the Visitation, the sixth, 
was composed of grammar students. The philos- 
ophers, the law students and the students of the- 
ology formed the seventh under the patronage of 
the Immaculate Conception; the tradesmen, in the 
eighth, honored Mary under the title of Immacu- 
late; the ninth was for Priests, with the Visitation 
for patronal feast day; the tenth was secret. Its 
33 members rivaled each other in fervor: their 
patroness was Our Lady of Piety. The beggars 
enrolled themselves in the eleventh; they deducted 
a tenth of the alms which had been given them to 
defray the expenses of their meetings. The So- 
dality of the Assumption, the twelfth, only received 
lawyers into its ranks; the little children flocked 
to the thirteenth: Mary at the Temple was their 
patroness. The fourteenth saw to the general com- 
munity; it was also called the Sodality of the Na- 
tivity. Finally, the fifteenth, called the Sodality 
of the holy Conversation of Mary with Jesus, re- 
cruited in all ranks and all conditions. 12 

Under impulse of the Venerable Father Vincent 
Carrafa, the Sodality of the Nobles often presented 
to the great Neapolitan city signs of heroic virtues, 
which were unaccountable for without the special 
assistance of the Queen of Heaven. 

"Letierce, 91. 



38 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

Not long after Father Carrafa had taken up the 
direction of the Sodality, he fell very seriously ill 
and was despaired of by the doctors. 

One evening, about five o'clock, when the Father 
was in this condition, as we are told with unaf- 
fected frankness by one of his biographers, a 
Brother, whom he knew very well, entered the 
room. Seeing him, the Father began heaving deep 
sighs and his face was expressive of the most vio- 
lent sorrow. The Brother, astonished at so extraor- 
dinary a thing, most affectionately inquired what 
was wrong, and what was the cause of these tears 
and this grief? But the Father answered him 
vaguely, saying with great emotion: "May God 
forgive you ! go away and leave me alone." 

The Brother, suspecting that something extraor- 
dinary had occurred, had a still greater desire to 
know what was happening, and he began coaxing 
the Father to tell him in all confidence why he 
was weeping; and he begged so hard, that the 
Father, to get rid of him, promised to tell him 
later, requesting him to go away immediately for 
the time being. 

The Brother went away, but failed not to return 
at the end of two hours. But, in spite of all his 
prayers and earnest entreaties, he could learn noth- 
ing from him. 

The following morning, he came back, begged the 
Father to keep his promise, urged him strongly, 
declaring that he would never cease insisting and 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 39 

would not leave before this satisfaction was given 
to him. At length, his importunity prevailed and 
under the seal of absolute secrecy, the Father be- 
gan: "When you came into my room, the Queen 
of Heaven had already been here offering me either 
life or death and bidding me to choose between 
them. For my part, I confided to her care my life 
and death, assuring her that my one desire was 
to please her; that death would not be unwelcome 
were it not that I should leave the Sodality in a 
poorer condition than I should wish to do for her 
honor; that if it were for her glory, I did not refuse 
to live. While I was saying this, you unexpectedly 
arrived." 

The Brother, so as to understand it all better, 
asked the Father whether he was really awake at 
the time, or whether it was a vision seen in sleep. 
"I was awake, without a doubt," he answered, and 
he added that he had previously had similar conso- 
lations. 13 

From that time on, the saintly Director's zeal 
knew no bounds. "God and my Sodality," he re- 
peated incessantly : because in this world it was his 
only care. If his companions in the apostolate 
came to see him, he always greeted them with the 
words: "What news is there of the Sodality? 
Dear Father, are those gentlemen becoming 
saints?" 

Every Tuesday, the Sodalists went to the Incur- 

13 Le Blanc, Life of Fr. V. Carrafa, II. 12. 



40 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

able Hospital. It was a touching sight to see these 
gentlemen eager to render the poor wretches the 
humblest of services. To dress their wounds, to 
make their beds, to help the infirm, to console the 
dying, to bury the dead, all these things seemed 
to be mere pleasure to these fervent Christians, 
to judge from their serene and happy faces. On 
certain solemn days, they gave their beloved incur- 
ables a sumptuous banquet. The hospital was 
turned into a palace. The high bare walls were 
hung with tapestries and silks embroidered in gold ; 
fine table cloths and napkins of the best quality, 
scented water for the fingers, silver plates, music 
during the feast, choice dishes and desserts of all 
sorts — nothing was lacking to entertain worthily 
the royal poverty of Jesus in his suffering mem- 
bers. 

The convicts had their share of the good works 
of the Sodality. When the members heard that a 
band of them were to pass by on their way to 
prison, Father Carrafa and his noble Sodalists 
with cross borne before them and singing the lita- 
nies went forth to meet the prisoners, who were 
conducted to a great hall. There the gentlemen 
first washed the wretches' feet, then served them a 
sumptuous meal. After that the Father made them 
an impassioned address; a collection, which was 
always very generous, concluded the ceremony; 
the proceeds helped to release immediately the 
convicted debtors. 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 41 

The zealous Director had a great love of splen- 
dor in the divine service; his Sodalists gave him 
very liberal donations indeed. One day, a very- 
open handed member offered him fifteen hundred 
ducats ! Another time he had need of a certain sum 
for altar decorations, so he mentioned it to one of 
the officers of the Sodality. He answered that he 
was likely to have difficulty in procuring it. "In- 
deed!" interrupted the Father, "has not the Great 
Mother (his customary title for Our Lady) the 
power of obtaining it for us?" That very day he 
was given an alms of three hundred crowns. 

As for the interior life, there was nothing Father 
Carrafa did not do to keep it intense and generous 
in the hearts of his Sodalists. 

The General Communions, adoration of the Most 
Blessed Sacrament during the sinful sports of the 
carnival and on the seven principal feasts of the 
Blessed Virgin, and above all the Exercises of St. 
Ignatius which he gave them each year for eight 
days, reveal to us the secret of those prodigies of 
virtue, worthy of the most beautiful ages of Chris- 
tianity. 

But perhaps the most astonishing product of his 
zeal was what he called the secret Sodality. Other 
Sodalities of the same kind existed in several towns 
of France and Italy. In France, they were often 
called Aa, a conventional abbreviation of the word 
assembly. Apart from the spirit of fervor which 
was common to them all, each one had its own 



42 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

exercises and its particular rules. That of Messina, 
for example, never admitted more than 45 members, 
of whom 12 were ecclesiastics and 33 laymen, of 
all classes of society, probably in memory of the 
12 Apostles and the 33 years of Our Lord's life on 
earth. 14 

Father Carrafa's Sodality met every Friday at 
nightfall. The memory of the Passion of Our 
Saviour was then honored by prayer and penance. 
On this day, the holy Priest kept absolute silence, 
his mind entirely occupied with his evening meet- 
ing. If some one came to talk over matters with 
him, he used to answer simply: "Don't you know 
that there is secret Sodality to-day?" For two 
hours before the time of the meeting he meditated 
in the dark, locked in a little room. From there 
he emerged full of the spirit of God and thus com- 
municated to the best of his Sodalists the flames 
of Divine love. 

The hall was hung in mourning: on a little plat- 
form covered with a black cloth, there lay a statue 
of the Divine Master, around which were placed 
crowns of thorns. The meeting began by reading 
a passage from St. John Climacus on the austerities 
practised of old in the cloisters. Each Assistant 
put a crown of thorns on his brow and drew from 
an urn a little ticket specifying either a mortifica- 
tion to be done or a maxim for meditation. Then 
came the recitation of the Office of the Wounds of 
"Aguilera, II. 53. 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 43 

Our Lord; after which, any one who desired to do 
so, might accuse himself publicly of some fault and 
ask for a penance. Father Carrafa then spoke for 
a half hour on the sufferings of Our Redeemer, with 
that eloquence which only a passionate love can 
give. A long and severe discipline ended the pious 
exercises. 15 

Admirable humility of the saints! While the 
good Father was thus sanctifying the populous 
city of Naples, he considered himself far beneath 
his task and bewailed his unworthiness before God. 
When one of his brothers in religion tried to per- 
suade him to moderate a little his ardor in his deal- 
ings with the Sodality, indulged at the risk of soon 
sinking beneath the work, he answered: "Oh! my 
dear Father, it is the very thing for which I hope 
above all else. Since I cannot lay down this duty 
of Director of the Sodality till death, it would be 
better for me to die, so as to occupy no longer a 
place which another would fill better than I!" 

The Sodality of Nobles at Rome 

The Sodality of the Roman Professed House, by 
itself alone, could boast after a century's existence 
of having seen more than 80 of its members raised 
to the dignity of the cardinalate, and, in 1690, it 
counted as members 28 Cardinals and 39 Arch- 
bishops and Bishops, giving a splendid example to 
a considerable number of Princes and other illus- 

15 Bartoli. 



44 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

trious personages, who met regularly to the great 
edification of all the faithful. 16 

This Sodality, named Sodality of the Nobles, had 
been founded by the venerable Father Mastrilli, 
S.J. It took for its special work the mitigation of 
hatred and the extirpation of enmities, which were 
inveterate and intense in those Southern lands. For 
this purpose, the Sodalists were divided into bands, 
one for each of the sixteen quarters of Rome. If a 
dissension arose anywhere, the Sodalists, in accord 
with the parochial clergy, immediately exerted 
themselves to restore peace. They had a register, 
a golden book of charity, in which a secretary re- 
corded the reconciliations wrought in the name of 
the Virgin Queen of Peace. 

The Sodality of Nobles at Palermo 

The historians of the Society have perpetuated 
the memory of a touching spectacle of a sort of 
procession of charity which another Sodality of 
Nobles, directed by Father Francis Raiato, used to 
give in the town of Palermo. In our half pagan 
cities, such demonstrations seem to-day to be mere 
sport or a carnival scene. At that time they ap- 
peared — what they were in reality — the triumph of 
Christian charity. 

The Sodalists, all distinguished people, some even 
of the highest nobility, had resolved to visit the 

18 Crasset, Abridged History of the Sodalities. 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 45 

prison in a body and give them a festive meal. 
For this purpose, then, they assembled on 16 
August, 1618, at the Professed House. 

From there, they marched in procession to the 
prison by the longest way. They went two by two, 
each holding by the handle a basket decorated with 
flowers and filled with choice dishes. The Priest 
Sodalists led the march; after them, came the Pre- 
fect of the Sodality, Peter Leyva, whose exalted 
feats of arms had won him the prestige of military 
glory ; the officers came next, amongst whom was to 
be remarked the Duke of Montalto : as his infirmi- 
ties rendered marching impossible for him, he was 
borne in a chair, but an open one, so that every one 
might see that he as well as the others was laden 
with charitable gifts. Then filed by the rest of the 
procession, in the rear of which was Father Raiato, 
he also carrying his basket. 

They walked in silence, with eyes cast down, 
arousing on their way curiosity mixed with venera- 
tion. It was, in fact, the first time that the in- 
habitants of Palermo witnessed such a victory over 
human respect. 

On reaching the prison, they considered it an 
honor to serve the prisoners with their own hands. 
So great was the abundance of the feast that the 
remnants lasted for three days. 17 

"Aguilera, II. 71. 



46 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

Modern Sodalities at Rome 

To-day, as in its glorious past, Rome sees the 
Sodalities of Our Lady flourishing under the direc- 
tion of the Society of Jesus. Not to mention the 
Prima Primaria, the never failing trunk of the 
great tree of the Sodalities of Our Lady spread over 
the whole world, one must note particularly: 

1. The Sodality of the "Scaletta"; its members 
are some of the students in the government schools, 
especially the pupils of the Ennio Quirino Visconti 
Lyceum, which was once the Roman College. 

2. Next, the Sodality established in the Church 
of Our Lady of the Angels for the Students of the 
two neighboring Colleges, as well as for those of 
the technical schools situated in the same district. 

3. The Sodality which has its center at the Latin 
American College in the Prati di Castello for the 
students in the government schools of this large 
district. As it is very prosperous, it is like a per- 
petual mission for its members and their families, 
thanks to the frequent instructions, to the solemn 
first Communions preceded by a several days' re- 
treat, to the distribution of prizes for punctual at- 
tendance and merit, to the spread of good books 
from a circulating library. 

4. A Sodality established at the German College, 
attended by the children in the parish. 

5. The Sodality of the Massimo College, which 
has about 500 students. The good which comes of 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 47 

it is great, important and lasting, for it is firmly es- 
tablished and rooted in a soil saturated through 
and through with piety and the supernatural. 

6, 7 and 8. Finally, in the church of the Gesu, 
three Sodalities, one for nobles one for workingmen 
and one for tradesmen. 

Sodalities in France 

The page of the Sodality's history in France is 
not less charming. 

Paris 

The Sodality was first erected at the College of 
Clermont at Paris, probably by Father Leunis him- 
self in 1569, and it caused the students who has- 
tened in flocks to its ranks to make marvelous prog- 
ress in piety. At the very time when it was the 
object of the jealous reproaches of Doctor Pelletier 
and of the University, it received among its mem- 
bers a thirteen-year-old child who was to render it 
immortally famous, the young Francis de Sales. 
During the six years that he was a member of the 
Sodality, he repeatedly filled the highest offices. It 
was at the College of Clermont, as is well known, 
that the saintly Sodalist owed to the protection of 
the Queen of Heaven the victory over a temptation 
to despair. 

Here is what Francis Favre, his servant, declared 
in his first canonical examination for the beatifica- 
tion of his venerated master: 



48 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

"I know that, about the year 1580, when for the 
continuance of his studies, the servant of God was 
sent to Paris by his father, who wished to place him 
at the College de Navarre, where the flower of the 
nobility studied, he, fearing the loss of his inno- 
cence, threw himself at his mother's feet and begged 
her to persuade his father to send him instead to 
the Jesuit College. The Saint knew it was a true 
seminary of all virtues, and added these beautiful 
words: 'It would be a greater pleasure for his 
parents to see him return a devout disciple of Our 
Lord Jesus Christ, than a learned and elegant 
courtier.' I know that with the Jesuit Fathers in 
Paris, he went to Confession every week. He 
begged admission into the Sodality, where he gave 
such a splendid example that he was several times 
elected Prefect and Assistant, and he made admir- 
able exhortations to the postulants. 

"If he was neither at home nor at the college, he 
might be found in some church or monastery. 

"Two years later, he was assailed by a cruel temp- 
tation to despair; he believed he was damned, and 
the thought caused a dreadful jaundice to break 
out over his whole body; the doctors despaired of 
his recovery, as he despaired of his salvation. 

"In this state, he entered the church of St. 
Etienne-des-Pres, where he often went to pray be- 
fore a statue of the Blessed Virgin. There he saw 
the Memorare of St. Bernard fastened to the wall 
and breaking into tears began to recite it. He 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 49 

made a vow of perpetual virginity, and, at that 
very instant, hope reentered his soul and health re- 
turned to his body. As a proof of his gratitude to 
the Mother of God, he made it an obligation to re- 
cite the rosary every day of his life. I have learned 
that he never failed to do this." 18 

As regards the most strictly reformed Religious 
houses, such as the Carthusians, Capuchins and 
Minors, an ancient chronicler says it is perfectly 
true that the University of Paris was their com- 
mon seminary. In this respect the Sodality of Our 
Lady, established there, was of the greatest advan- 
tage: in this Sodality a very large number of young 
students, along with many prelates, doctors, judges, 
lawyers and tradesmen devoted themselves to the 
service of the Mother of God. The exhortations 
were usually given by one or other of the great 
theologians; the meditations, penances, Confessions 
and Communions were frequent. These devotions 
were easily fostered by High Masses and Vespers 
with music and singing and with great solemnity 
on Sundays and festivals; the Kings Charles IX 
and Henry III, Queens, Princes, Princesses, 
Bishops, and lords of the court of Parliament did 
not deem the little chapel of this large College un- 
worthy of their esteem. 19 

18 Unpublished details of the life of St. Francis de Sales, 
from the evidence of his servant. 

18 Carayon, Unpublished Documents Concerning the So- 
ciety of Jesus, Vol. I. 



50 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

Similarly, Father Edmund Auger, the formidable 
adversary of the Calvinists, instituted the Peni- 
tents of the Annunciation, "with the hope of seeing 
in this kingdom, through the ardent intercession of 
the most holy Virgin, all heresies, errors and false 
opinions which ravage and trouble it, overthrown 
and brought to naught." Here is an extract from 
the rules: No member should fail to hear Mass 
every day; each one should see that God should 
not be offended in his family; he should say every 
day the rosary of Our Lady or at least a decade 
of it; he must visit the prisoners, for whom he 
should have four Masses said, and to whom he him- 
self should preach or have others do it; he should 
console them and if there are any condemned to 
death, he should not leave them before the poor 
wretches go forth to execution. The rules are the 
same for the hospitals. 20 

Another Sodality established at the Jesuit 
Novitiate, in the Faubourg St. Germain, counted 
among its members the princes Ferdinand and 
Charles of Lorraine. But the domestics had their 
reunions as well as the rich and powerful of the 
time, "so that they too might have the opportunity 
of performing the same exercises in honor of the 
Virgin Mary," says an ancient document, "instead 
of idly waiting in attendance on their masters dur- 
ing the two hours' duration of the latters' meeting." 

At all times Paris has seen flocking within its 

"Delplace, 28. 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 51 

walls bands of those poor children who come from 
the remotest parts of the provinces, seeking in the 
capital means to earn their daily bread, and they 
meet more often than not with the greatest misery. 
The Sodalists devoted themselves to relieve their 
distress. 

At the end of the XVIth century, there chanced 
to be in Paris, completing his studies, a young So- 
dalist from Rheims, Etienne Joly. At the sight of 
these little vagabonds whom hunger and idleness 
exposed to the winds of all the vices, his heart was 
touched; he gathered them together, fed them, 
taught them and supplied their most urgent needs. 
At his death, this inheritance of charity passed into 
the hands of another child of Mary, Mr. Helyot. 
While he gathered these forsaken youths off the 
streets of the great city, his wife, a worthy rival of 
his virtues, on her part collected the homeless girls. 
After them, a holy Priest, Francis du Breuil de 
Pontbriand, took this interesting adopted family 
under his paternal care and worked for them until 
he breathed his last. Lastly, the venerable John 
Baptist de Salignac Fenelon succeeded him as di- 
rector of the great work, until his martyrdom, in 
1793. 

The Seminary for the Foreign Missions 

Catholic France prides itself justly on the ad- 
mirable institution of the Seminary for the Foreign 



52 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

Missions. But this institution owes its first mem- 
bers to the Sodality. 

Father Alexander de Rhodes, after having 
worked some time at Goa, went to Cochin-China and 
to Tonkin, the scene for nearly thirty years of his 
immense labors. When he first felt old age creep- 
ing upon him, he decided to come back to Europe 
to ask for a sufficient number of workers to com- 
plete the spiritual conquest of his kingdom. Bid- 
den by Innocent X and by his Superiors to preach 
a crusade in France, he was cordially welcomed by 
all classes of society. The venerable missionary, 
by his presence and his discourses, animated a great 
number of Priests with his zeal. Among these new 
apostles, three were chosen from the Sodality of the 
Blessed Virgin to be anointed Bishops of Heliopolis, 
of Berythus and of Metellopolis. The Sodality 
which was to be the germ of the Foreign Missions 
was directed by Father Bagot, a Jesuit. 21 

Father John Bagot was born at Rennes in 1590, 
and died at Paris in 1664, after fifty-five years of 
religious life. So great was his reputation for 
learning and holiness, that Louis XIII chose him 
for Confessor. But the man of God, whose favorite 
maxim was, Love to be unknown and to be consid- 
ered nothing, succeeded by earnest entreaty in per- 
suading the king to allow him to return to the 
obscurity of community life. From that time until 
his death, he took charge of the Sodality of the 

"Fevre, Hist, of the Church, XXXVIII. 3. 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 53 

Blessed Virgin, in which under his direction so 
many souls of eminent virtue were formed, men of 
the world, Priests, Religious, Prelates and mis- 
sionaries. 

Adrian Launay says that Father de Rhodes came 
to Europe to ask the Sovereign Pontiff for Bishops 
for Tonkin and Cochin-China. . . . Innocent X 
wished to consecrate Father de Rhodes. Faithful 
to the spirit of his vocation, the humble priest re- 
fused the honor. . . . The Pope did not insist, and 
ordered him to look for candidates who could be 
made Bishops and be sent to Eastern Asia. 

In 1653, Father de Rhodes, who had fruitlessly 
searched through Italy, Piedmont and the Catholic 
part of Switzerland, came to Paris, still hunting for 
Bishops, in obedience to the order he had received 
from the Sovereign Pontiff. During Father de 
Rhodes' stay in this city, he was brought one day 
by Father Bagot to a meeting of a small associa- 
tion of which the latter was Director, a group 
placed, in a special manner, under the protection 
of the Blessed Virgin. 

Father de Rhodes told the company of the needs 
of the missions in the Far East and the wishes of 
the Sovereign Pontiff. 

Some who were deeply moved by the words of 
the venerable Priest, began to wonder if God was 
not calling them to be the instruments of the Holy 
See. After several days of reflection, they deter* 



54 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

mined to consecrate themselves to the missions. 22 

We do not wish to claim for Father de Rhodes 
all the glory of having been the founder or one of 
the founders of the Society of Foreign Missions — 
an honor which the author whom we have quoted 
refuses him — because the venerable missionary 
never had the intention of founding an apostolic or 
religious congregation, and had come to Europe 
merely to obtain Bishops for Annam, and had been 
obliged to set off again with the regret of having 
failed. We think, however, that Father de Rhodes' 
part is too lightly estimated in the words: "All 
that one can say, is that the founders and first 
Apostolic Vicars of the Foreign Missions became 
acquainted with the needs of the missions in the 
Far East through Father de Rhodes." 

In fact, the members who made up the young 
Society at the time when it was definitely founded 
and officially recognized (1663), were former Jesuit 
students and belonged to the Association of Good 
Friends. These Good Friends were all members of 
the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin, established for 
the day-scholars of the College of Clermont. Thus 
strictly united, they formed a kind of Sodality 
within a Sodality, the elite amid the elite. 

In the number of these fervent Sodalists, was 
counted Francis de Montmorency, the first Bishop 
of Quebec; de Meurs, first Superior of the Foreign 
Missions at Paris; Jogues, martyred in Canada; 

22 General History of the Society of Foreign Missions, I. 1. 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 55 

the famous Archdeacon of Evreux, Henry Boudon, 
and that other Superior of the Foreign Missions, 
Fermanel, whom the prayers and example of Henry 
Boudon had won for the apostolate. "These meet- 
ings of young men," Boudon wrote, "have been like 
a little spring which has grown to a large river 
from the number of Bishops and Vicars Apostolic 
that have been chosen from their midst for the east 
and the west. It was from this number that were 
taken the Bishops for Siam, for China and for 
Canada, to be as fathers to them. Thus originated 
the Seminary of the Foreign Missions in Paris 
which spreads the sweet odor of the Gospel teach- 
ings, and is the good odor of Jesus Christ." 

Among the chosen souls whom Father Bagot di- 
rected, Boudon deserved a place of honor. As a 
simple Sodalist in the College at Rouen, he had 
gathered the most fervent of his school-fellows into 
a sort of court of Mary. A marvelous fervor 
reigned in this new Cenacle, where the young ini- 
tiates rivaled each other in holy practices in honor 
of the Queen of Heaven. 

He himself tells us that they lived together in 
one house where they were boarders. There, they 
had reserved a little oratory for themselves, where 
they assembled every day to render homage to their 
amiable Sovereign, using the little money that they 
received from their parents to decorate her images 
with flowers and burning incense and lighted can- 
dles. They argued often who should give her the 



56 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

most magnificent names; it was the subject of their 
conversation during their meals, and all the charm 
of their recreation; they even spent a part of the 
night in such discussions and made each other 
sacred challenges, as it were, as to who should 
render her the greatest honors. On holidays it was 
their dearest delight to visit the churches dedicated 
to Mary ; it is said they often made these pilgrim- 
ages barefooted. They prepared themselves for the 
feasts of Our Lady by long fasts and sometimes 
spent the whole night in meditating on her incom- 
parable excellence. It was a pleasure to see the 
eagerness with which they hastened to the College 
gate to reach the Sodality chapel. From three or 
four o'clock in the morning they were at their post, 
and in patient prayer waited for the door to be 
opened. 

But it is not possible to merely enumerate the 
ingeniousness of their love. They had parchment 
record books, where they wrote, several even with 
their blood, that they were Our Lady's slaves, and 
that they had given her all their actions. Some 
had written that they would defend the Immaculate 
Conception even by death; every day they recited 
the Office. 23 

Lyons 

In the city of Lyons alone there were, two cen- 
turies ago, as many as eleven Sodalities, four of 

23 God Alone, or the Holy Slavery to the Mother of God. 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 57 

which were for workingmen. On 28 May, 1679, 
the Rector of the Jesuit College was able to ad- 
dress the aldermen of the city in these words: "It 
is indeed a very special pleasure for us to have the 
task of instructing, every Sunday, workingmen, 
great and small, day-laborers ... in such great 
numbers that our college, though famous for its 
size, is too small to contain them." Ten years 
later, he added: "In this college, almost 2000 of 
your children are educated in the classics; nearly 
4000 Sodalists are instructed in piety." 

Avignon 

Avignon possessed likewise a large number of 
Sodalities. 24 In the XVIIIth century they included 
a total of 2000 members, divided into nine centers. 

It was at the request of the Sodalists of this 
town, that Father Poire wrote a celebrated work 
on Our Lady, as he tells us in the Dedication of 
his book. In his address to Mary, the pious author 
says: "Dost thou not remember how many times 
thy well beloved children, the most honorable mem- 
bers of the great Sodality which is established in 
the noble town of Avignon, and is one of the most 
illustrious Sodalities in France, protested that these 
conferences which I gave for their sake, were no 
longer mine, but theirs, and that they were re- 

"Chossat, The Jesuits and Their Works at Avignon, 
Chap. 7 and 19. 



58 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

sponsible for the confusion which I had reason to 
dread, if I committed them to print?" 

Aix 

The Annals of the College of Aix mention twelve 
Sodalities established in this town (citizens, peas- 
ants, Priests, etc.), seven of which were in activity 
at the same time (1663). They did the greatest 
good in the town, as is proved by the following 
passage from a petition addressed to the magis- 
trates of the town: "The zeal and charity of the 
Fathers for the salvation of souls have prompted 
them to found seven different Sodalities. ... So 
great is the consequence of this work that there is 
no one who does not recognize its spiritual profit 
and advantage to the greater number of the in- 
habitants of the town, and principally to the work- 
ingmen, the apprentices, the tradesmen and the 
clerks employed in the works of the court, and also 
to the peasants." 

Rennes and Other Cities 

Rennes had its men's Sodalities (gentlemen, 
tradesmen, workingmen) ; in Dijon there were five 
established at the college de Godrans for students, 
gentlemen, Priests, writers, workingmen. 

A little town such as Pontarlier had as many as 
two. 

At Marseilles, the Sodality of Nobles had a wide 
influence. The day of its patronal feast, the Im- 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 59 

maculte Conception, it sent an invitation to the 
municipality which the latter was most pleased to 
accept. "On 8 December, 1728," says the Cere- 
monial of the town-hall of Marseilles, "the alder- 
men went, according to their custom, to hear Mass 
and a sermon with the Sodality of St. Jaume, 
founded by the Jesuits. The Prefect and two of- 
ficers of the Sodality came to the town hall to ac- 
company the magistrates. On the preceding day, 
the Father Director of the Sodality, the Prefect 
and the two Assistants had come to extend the 
invitation. The aldermen carried the canopy, with 
the two chief captains of the district." 25 

Rouen 

There flourished at Rouen a Sodality which is 
worthy in more than one respect to attract our at- 
tention. 

We read in the Religious Week of Rouen of the 
year 1884, that on 22 February in the year 1762, 
there perished in that city a work which during 
an existence of more than a century and a half 
had been, for its members and the unfortunate ones 
it aided, a source of untold blessings. 

The Parliament of Normandy, infected with 
Jansenism and with so called Philosophy, had just 
suppressed all the Jesuit foundations within its 
jurisdiction. This act dealt a fatal blow likewise 
to the works which were founded by the Fathers 

26 Archives of the Prefecture of Marseilles. 



60 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

in the interest of religion and for the success of 
which they were working. Among the chief of 
these achievements was the Sodality of the Blessed 
Virgin, established in the College for the gentlemen 
of the town. The last meeting was held on 2 Feb- 
ruary, 1762. 

There were at the College in Rouen three Sodali- 
ties of the Blessed Virgin, each adapted to the 
spiritual needs of a different class of society. 

The first, that of the scholars, was made up ex- 
clusively of a certain number of the College 
students. 

The second, for workingmen, gathered together 
a choice band of those who wished to honor the 
Blessed Virgin in a very special manner and to 
procure her protection. 

The third was reserved for the gentlemen of the 
town. Into it were received nobles, magistrates, 
chief citizens and the graduates of the college, who 
had previously belonged to the Students' Sodality. 

Each Sodality had its own Chapel in the College, 
its private meetings, its peculiar organization, its 
own works, its own practices and its director. 

On the list of eminent Priests who directed the 
Gentlemen's Sodality at Rouen, we find the name 
of Father Claude de Lidelle, who was the professor 
of the great Corneille. This Father had spent the 
last years of his life in completing several works, 
of which the most important was the Theology of 
the Saints in two folio volumes. Before sending it 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 61 

to the press, the aged Professor, who, despite the 
coldness of old age, had ever loved his former pupil 
with the fondness of a father and a friend, wished 
to inform Corneille of his work. Corneille, whose 
esteem and gratitude towards the teacher of his 
childhood had not been diminished by the splendor 
of his success, as yet without rival, wanted to give 
him a lasting testimony of his admiration and 
grateful love. He wrote Father de Lidelle an elo- 
quent letter, which was published in 1668 at the 
beginning of the work. 

Among the admirable works which the Gentle- 
men's Sodality accomplished, we will only mention 
the exterior works of charity. 

An executive committee, made up of the leading 
Sodalists, had charge of the distribution of alms. 
It met every Sunday under the presidency of the 
Director. That help might be given to the really 
needy and that it might not become an encourage- 
ment to idleness, a list of the poor was made in 
which was stated their age, their dwelling, their 
occupation, the number of their children, etc. 

A distribution was made once a week on a fixed 
day at the meeting place of the Sodality. Other 
assistance, especially to the poor of the better 
classes, was brought to their lodgings by some of 
the Sodalists, who always tried, while easing the 
corporal miseries of the sufferers, to attend to the 
needs of their souls by charitable advice and words 
of consolation. This sort of, so to speak, secret 



62 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

alms, amounted yearly to 300 or 400 pounds, but 
it rose to unexpected proportions on the eve of the 
suppression of the Sodality (1761) when it reached 
705 pounds. It was like a protest against the 
wickedness of the blow which was about to be dealt 
against it. 

The third class of wretches who were assisted by 
the Sodalists was the prisoners. The prison gates 
were opened to them, and every week a few went, 
far less to attend to the urgent necessities of life 
than to awaken in the souls of the unhappy sin- 
ners, whom justice had branded and society had 
rejected from its midst, sentiments of resignation 
and of repentance. When these criminals saw men, 
often of high rank, descending into their dungeons, 
coming out of the purest intention of charity, pity- 
ing their situation and treating them like brothers, 
they lent a willing ear to them and returned with 
all sincerity to God. 

In a word, it was to the Sodalities of Our Lady, 
according to Cardinal de Bausset, that France owed 
the maintenance of the fervent Catholic spirit at 
home, and to them also must be attributed her 
apostolate and her Missions in the Far East, in 
China, in Egypt, in Greece, as well as among the 
remotest barbarous peoples and tribes of Africa 
and the New World. 

"In the principal commercial towns," he adds, 
"as is still fresh in the minds of many, there never 
was more order and peace, more honesty in busi- 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 63 

ness, less bankruptcy and less depravity, than 
when the Sodalities existed: the Jesuits knew how 
to link the Sodalities with all professions and with 
all social institutions; they helped to maintain 
among all classes and conditions that regularity of 
manners, that spirit of subordination, that prudent 
economy, which keeps peace and harmony in fami- 
lies and makes the prosperity of empires." 26 

St. Acheul 

We must add that the friendly relations existing 
between the Sodality and the St. Vincent de Paul 
Society are noticed by every one. The greater part 
of the works of charity, held in high esteem among 
the members of the Conferences, have always been 
one of the daily regulations in the family of Mary. 
For example, the Sodality founded at St. Acheul 
by Father de Bussy, in 1821, seems to have 
sketched in its main outlines the program that ten 
years later the founders of the Conference adopted 
for their nascent work. 

The object of the Charity Section of the Sodality 
was to bring spiritual and temporal aid to the poor 
in their homes, to the sick in the hospital and to 
the prisoners. It had a president, a vice-president, 
a secretary, a treasurer and several heads of bands. 
It was consecrated in a special manner to the 
Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, and had for its 
patrons St. Francis Xavier and St. Vincent de Paul. 

"Bausset, History of Fenelon, I. 



64 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

On Wednesday, they visited the hospital, and on 
Saturday the poor families and the prisons. All 
the members of the Section, arranged by order of 
weeks, carefully gathered up every day the re- 
mains of dessert, fruit, scattered sheets of paper, 
useless copies and old copy-books ... it was a 
help to the resources of generosity. Sodalists alone 
were candidates, and these chosen candidates had to 
be proved worthy of the honor. To gather up the 
remains in the refectory, to accompany members 
of the Section to the hospital, to try to console the 
sick, to instruct them in their duties and to bring 
them back to God, such was their initiation. 27 

Caen 

The above details suffice to give an idea of the 
Sodalities of the Blessed Virgin in France: it is 
not their history. That history is still to be writ- 
ten; it will be exceedingly interesting and, what is 
more, very real. It will teach the right way to 
"reach the masses," and successful means to inter- 
est the rich in behalf of employees. It will show 
the eminently practical and beneficial social move- 
ment that the Jesuits of the XVIIth and XVIIIth 
centuries exercised everywhere in favor of the 
working classes, by means of the Sodalities for 
gentlemen, for merchants and for workingmen, 
which it was customary for the Fathers to estab- 
lish wherever there was a community. 

27 L. de Chazoubnes, Life of Father Joseph Barelle, 1.88. 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 65 

What this complete history would be, might be 
imagined by reading a simple monograph, recently 
published by Father Henry Fouqueray S.J. in the 
5 January, 1903, number of the Etudes: A Social 
Work of the XVIIIth Century. This article was 
printed in pamphlet form by the publishers. Be- 
low is reproduced the portion of the sketch which 
treats directly of our subject: the part played by 
the Society of Jesus in the Sodalities of the Blessed 
Virgin. It is about the Gentlemen's Sodality di- 
rected by the Jesuits at Caen at the beginning of 
the XVIIIth century. The following letter, pre- 
served in a manuscript of the city library, is writ- 
ten by a Father of that town — undoubtedly the 
Director of the Sodality — in answer to one of his 
fellow Jesuits who had asked for information con- 
cerning the charitable works customary among the 
Sodalists. 

"Reverend Father, 

"... I may say that the Sodality has no fixed 
rules for the exercise of works of mercy, but merely 
the few following customs which are observed with 
edification: 

"In the first place, these gentlemen have collected 
among themselves a common fund from which they 
make loans without interest to poor workingmen, 
tradesmen and others, and in this way help them 
to remain in their profession or to resume it if pov- 
erty has forced them to abandon it. So as not to 
be deceived, they take care to exact securities from 



66 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

the borrowers, to ascertain by inquiries, which are 
prudently and kindly made, that the persons are in 
need, that there is reason to hope they will take 
advantage by their industry and their work of the 
help given them and prepare to return little by 
little that which they received all at once. The 
gentlemen avoid as much as possible giving them 
money in cash, because thus they are apt to spend 
it uselessly. The Sodalists strive, hand in hand 
with them, to buy them the things which are neces- 
sary for their calling, such as tools, woolen goods, 
wood, leather, thread, horses, cattle, etc., etc. They 
present to the secretary a kind of petition addressed 
to the gentlemen of the Sodality. The Father ap- 
points three commissioners whose names are writ- 
ten below the petition for the examination. This 
council of three, consisting ordinarily of an ecclesi- 
astic, a married man and a young man, sometimes 
one group, sometimes another, make the minutest 
inquiries with the greatest possible secrecy, so as 
not to hurt the feelings of those whom they wish 
to help. Then they write at the foot of the petition 
their signed opinion. Thereupon the Father, after 
having himself examined the affair with care, tells 
the secretary in accordance with the commissioners' 
advice what should be done; and if the petition is 
granted, the secretary binds the petitioner to the 
contract that his security will not be returned to 
him until he has completed the payment of the sum 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 67 

loaned. This, Reverend Father, is the first prac- 
tice of the Gentlemen's Sodality. 

"The second consists in visiting every week, from 
the feast of All Saints till the first days of May, 
all the poor in the six parishes of the six suburbs, 
where there are not sufficient rich people to help 
them. Each Pastor sends to the Father Director 
an inventory of all his poor with their addresses. 
The Father subdivides the catalogue into smaller 
lists, the number of which is greater or less ac- 
cording to the number of poor in the parish; the 
lists are distributed at the first of each month 
among gentlemen of the Sodality, who form into 
bands of three, an ecclesiastic, a married man and 
a young man, and they choose a day to make their 
first visit together to their poor; the following 
Sunday after Vespers, they make a report, before 
all the Sodalists assembled, of the miseries of the 
poor whom they have visited. Then they decide 
what each of them must receive to enable him to 
subsist, and if the Sodalists intrusted with the list 
in question can themselves bear the expense, they 
do it with pleasure; if this is not possible, it is 
not an uncommon occurrence, nay, rather it is the 
custom, to take from the common Sodality fund 
what is necessary to meet the requirements of those 
on the list. You ask us what is given to the poor 
in these visits? Bread, linen, beds, so as to sep- 
arate persons of the same family and in this way 
prevent great disorder. But the principal advan- 



68 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

tage regards the spiritual works. They console the 
poor, and exhort them to patience and to frequent 
use of the Sacraments; they instruct the children 
in their parents' presence; they sometimes discover 
secret or scandalous dissensions which they redress 
with the aid of the pastors; they settle disputes, 
etc. 

"As a third practice, the Sodalists take poor but 
industrious boys with whom they have become ac- 
quainted by visiting the families, and they have 
these boys taught some trade, each according to his 
bent and talents. This they do in three ways: 
either in a contest, choosing those who know their 
Christian doctrine the best (which does not fail 
to induce those who aspire to the honor to pay 
attention) ; or if there is a tie, they draw lots ; or, 
in the case of a large family of children, they 
choose the child who promises to be the most suc- 
cessful. When the choice has been made in one 
of these three ways, the Father appoints three gen- 
tlemen of the Sodality to make terms with a teacher 
and to look after the affair until the term of ap- 
prenticeship is completed; after this, charity in- 
duces the three gentlemen to protect their pupil 
and to help him to get settled. 

"Fourthly, we generally find that the best way 
to help the poor who are in good health is to make 
them work by providing them with the necessary 
advances which they cannot make themselves. 
They are well paid for their pains; they are forced 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 69 

to abandon idleness; they are spared the shame of 
begging; and their work, from the market which 
some virtuous and clever people make for it, some- 
times brings considerable profit. This reacts to 
the good of the poor and makes it possible for the 
good work to be continued and preserved, when it 
pleases the Lord to give it His blessing. 

"The fifth practice is the care of the sick poor of 
the six parishes in the suburbs. During the whole 
course of their sickness, sheets, shirts and other 
necessary linen are lent to them, and the food and 
medicines needed for their recovery are procured 
for them. This is done very systematically. In 
each parish a linen store-house is organized, which 
is run by some devoted persons, who undertake to 
care for the linen, to send it to the sick and to 
reclaim it after the sickness; for the maintenance 
of these particular store-houses, there is a main 
one in the city also, intrusted to some virtuous 
person, who voluntarily devotes herself to such a 
good work. Seven gentlemen are appointed from 
time to time to visit the seven store-houses and give 
an account of their condition to the Sodality; and 
when the linen which has been used for the sick 
is worn out, it is given to poor mothers for swad- 
dling clothes and clean garments for their little 
children, or it is made into lint used in bandaging 
those afflicted with ulcers. To the latter task 
many of our gentlemen of noble birth and great 
virtue have devoted themselves for several years. 



70 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

"The sixth practice of the Sodality produces a 
spiritual benefit all the more solid because it lasts 
with some often until death. This is a yearly 
retreat at Christmas, for twenty-five poor girls or 
women, chosen by the gentlemen of the Sodality, 
who in their visits pick out those who need it the 
most. They select four or five from each parish, 
and so as to spread this benefit among more people, 
nine years must intervene before a person may be 
chosen a second time. There is another similar 
consideration in the choice, too, namely to gain the 
advantage for two classes of persons: for the aged, 
to prepare them for death by a good General Con- 
fession, and for the younger women, who because 
of their temperament and past conduct are most in 
need of such aid. 

"Seventhly, the poor in the prisons have not es- 
caped the charity of the Sodality. It has a separate 
supply of linen for their special benefit, for those 
in good health, as well as for the sick, so that the 
healthy prisoners have a change of clothes every 
week or fortnight according to the season. The 
Sodalists take care that the soiled garments are 
washed without expense to the prisoners. When 
the poor prisoners are sick, they have in addition 
the other necessary linen like that lent to the poor 
in the suburbs and, like the latter, they are pro- 
vided with medical care, necessary remedies and 
food. Many persons, not members of the Sodality, 
have joined those who belong to it in sending soup 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 71 

daily to the prisons. Also, it is not hard to find 
charitable lawyers among our Sodalists. A few 
years ago the Sodality presented the prisoners with 
the Lives of the Saints, with the seal of the Sodal- 
ity on it, so as to induce them to keep the book 
more carefully. Every day, after prayers in com- 
mon, they read the life of the Saint of the day, and 
this reading is very profitable for them. 

"The zeal of the Sodality extends still further to 
the Missions, foreign as well as home. They con- 
tribute to both according to their means. 

"I hope, Reverend Father, that the details which 
you wished me to give you, will according to your 
intentions, be for the glory of God." 

Thus at the beginning of the XVIIIth century, 
we see the following charities at work in one of 
the Sodalities, under the direction and by the evi- 
dent initiative of the Jesuits of Caen. 

1. Loans on security, granted on the most per- 
fect conditions; 

2. The work of the training of apprentices; 

3. Assistance of the poor by setting them to 
work, a great question of the XlXth and XXth 
centuries ; 

4. Dispensaries: food, medicines and medical 
consultation given free of charge; 

5. The prison work; 

6. The regular visiting of the poor, relieving them 
by alms in the form of money and linen; and this 
with a perfection unattained perhaps even by the 



72 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

Conferences of St. Vincent de Paul, efficient as 
they are: in fact, we do not think the latter have 
linen supplies in needy parishes. 

"With this letter," adds Father Fouqueray, "and 
in the same collection we found a number of docu- 
ments relating to the Gentlemen's Sodality. They 
will enable us to judge from actual facts the prog- 
ress of the beautiful Christian and social enter- 
prise. 

"The above letter was dated in the month of 
August, 1720. The works which it enumerates had 
been determined upon and commenced already 
twenty-five years before. It is indeed to the ex- 
traordinary and general assembly of the gentle- 
men of the Sodality held on 29 November, 1699, in 
the Chapel under the presidency of Father Ker- 
gariou, that must be traced not the first idea, but 
the complete and detailed plan of this entire chari- 
table organization. 

"After the recitation of the Veni Creator and 
some customary prayers to implore the aid of the 
Holy Ghost through the intercession of the Blessed 
Virgin, these gentlemen state that the number and 
the distress of the poor is increasing from day to 
day, and that since we have always devoted our- 
selves to the poor of the suburbs, whose less gen- 
erally known sufferings have been the last to be 
assuaged, the moment seems to have come to make 
a common fund of money to be used solely for their 
relief and sustenance." The letter told us but little 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 73 

about the important question of this relief bureau. 
Let us see the gentlemen's plans with regard to it. 

"This fund shall, first of all, be composed of the 
alms which gentlemen of the Sodality shall give 
for this purpose, each according to his devotion 
and to the sentiments of compassion with which all 
true Soda lists should be inspired at the sight of 
the extreme need of these poor souls. 

"To receive the money and to take charge of 
the special fund and apply it to the uses for which 
it should be employed, a receiver and an under- 
receiver were chosen, who were to keep a very 
exact account of the sums received and then of the 
disposal of the money. 

"In order that the gentlemen of the Sodality who 
give this sort of alms may reap all the fruit and 
merit before God, the said receivers and under-re- 
ceivers shall inviolably keep the secret which must 
be kept in such transactions, as is prescribed by 
the articles that have already been determined on 
for the exercise of works of charity. 

"That those outside may not be deprived abso- 
lutely of sharing in the good works of the Sodality, 
some day the fund may be increased by alms added 
to it in the future, by charitable persons not mem- 
bers of the Sodality. 

"In the same meeting, it was formally decided 
that this fund of extraordinary donations, which 
might one day become considerable, should be used 
solely for making loans to the poor and especially 



74 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

to those of the suburbs, for the purpose of aiding 
them to continue their business, to continue in their 
former occupations and to give those who were old 
enough to earn their living the opportunity of learn- 
ing some trade. 

"Two months later, 24 January, 1700, at an- 
other general meeting, it was reported that the fund 
allotted for the assistance of laborers out of work 
had already increased to the amount of one hun- 
dred and fifty pounds. It was therefore expedient 
to commence making use of it. In the first place, 
the gentlemen felt it an obligation to find out for 
themselves the misery of the suburban poor, and 
they decided that the best way to obtain this in- 
formation was to impose upon themselves the task 
of paying the poor visits from time to time. On 
this occasion some one remarked that on such visits 
they were sure to come upon certain needy persons, 
who, though they lack neither work nor the proper 
implements with which to carry on their trade 
. . . suffer from ill health, and the lack of the 
necessary ability of mind and of body . . . and 
that it was the duty of the gentlemen of the So- 
dality to strive to relieve the latter also, without, 
however, subtracting anything from what they had 
intended to do for the former. But charity is not 
disconcerted at such trifles. Therefore the gentle- 
men will seek the neediest poor in the six parishes 
of the suburbs. On these visits the Sodalists will 
give them alms from their own means, or they will 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 75 

exert their influence to obtain assistance for the 
poor from other charitable people, or will appro- 
priate for their use both the money slipped secretly 
into the poor box and the proceeds of the collec- 
tions taken up at the Chapel door." 

The generosity of the members of the Sodality 
and that of outside friends enabled the Sodality 
to meet the expenses caused by these two good 
works. There is still extant a secret account of the 
donations intended for loans. Over against the 
name of the donor appears the amount of his alms. 
On one date Mr. de Dampierre is entered for twen- 
ty-eight pounds, on another Mr. de Benonville for 
fourteen pounds, then again Mr. de Montcanisy 
for forty-two pounds, etc. . . . Rev. Father Ker- 
gariou often contributed a large share: here sixty- 
seven pounds, there a hundred and six pounds, else- 
where a hundred and thirty-two. . . . Doubtless 
these were the alms that his zeal had obtained from 
pious persons desirous of contributing to the chari- 
table works of the Sodality of which they were not 
members. Already by February, 1701, the total 
of this revenue was nine hundred and eleven 
pounds; it rose to nine hundred and sixty-six 
pounds two years later. 28 

The money was never squandered. That these 
gentlemen knew how to invest it well, may be 

28 At the beginning of the eighteenth century a pound 
was equivalent to 1 franc 80, about 38 cents. (Bally, 
Financial History of France, II. 298.) 



76 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

proved by a deed of 1 Oct., 1706. On this date, 
the prioress, subprioress and the trustee of the 
nursing sisters in the hospital of Caen " acknowl- 
edge that they have sold and handed over to the 
gentlemen of the Sodality erected in the Royal 
College of the Reverend Jesuit Fathers at Caen 
under the title of the Purification of the Blessed 
Virgin . . . the sum of a hundred pounds at five per 
cent interest, payable yearly in this town ... for 
the sum of two thousand pounds, now paid in ready 
money, which proceeds the said gentlemen of the 
Sodality declare came from alms which have been 
presented to aid them in their works of char- 
ity " 

Two thousand pounds spent in charities ! A stu- 
pendous sum, if one considers the value of money 
at the beginning of the eighteenth century. More- 
over, this could not have been the entire wealth of 
the Sodality; doubtless more money was invested 
elsewhere, and the Sodality surely kept enough 
ready money to meet current expenses. 

Not only were the funds securely deposited, but 
were also, according to the decision of the General 
Assembly, most prudently disposed of and loans 
were never made without exacting securities. The 
Sodalists had agreed to lend only to good living 
people and neither drunkards nor debauchees. The 
letter has already given us information on the sub- 
ject; all requests for pecuniary aid were made in 
writing, then inquiries were made, the conclusions 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 77 

of which, also committed to paper, were signed by 
the Sodalists in charge. 

Better still, the curious manuscript of the li- 
brary of Caen bears witness to the exercise of sev- 
eral other works of mercy through the medium of 
this same Sodality, an unquestionable proof of its 
resources and its social activity, things which the 
letter of the 15th of August, 1720, passed over in 
silence. 

First of all, the 16th article of the resolution of 
29 November, 1699, informs us that the gentlemen 
did not forget the poor, young and old, "whom 
they shall find unable to earn their living by any 
work"; it was decided that the Sodalists should 
zealously and tirelessly strive to place such people 
in the hospitals. 

Further, on page 5 of the same document, we 
read in the handwriting of the treasurer: "On 
Saturday, 12 December, 1705, Rev. Father Ker- 
gariou and Mr. de Montcanisy put into my hands 
three hundred pounds from Mrs. de Hermanville, 
who gave this sum for the release of five prisoners 
in jail for civil causes or for debt." 

This donation was easily spent. There follow 
in fact a certain number of remarks like these: 
On 4 January, 1706, James Mirey, imprisoned for 
a hundred and fifty pounds, the residue of a three- 
hundred-pound fine for illicit salt-trade . . . was 
released . . . partly by means of the sum of 
seventy pounds which was supplied him from the 



78 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

above mentioned fund. On 24 December, 1705, 
James, a carpenter, eleven months a prisoner for 
taxes on selling drink retail; and Pasquet, prisoner 
since last 14 September for the price of salt bought 
in the salt store, were released for fifty and sixty- 
pounds respectively, in accordance with the war- 
rant of Mr. Foucault, State judge, of the said day, 
at the time of his visit," etc., etc. 

Are not these book-keeping accounts, jejune 
though they be, very eloquent? Were it merely a 
question of a transient donation and one particular 
act, is it not evident that this charitable industry 
must have been inspired in these gentlemen by one 
or other of their other works, the visits to the poor, 
for example, or the work among the prisoners? In 
their relations with these unfortunate wretches, the 
Father Director and his sodalists must have found 
some whose capital crime was penury and their 
deliverance was the more urgent because their im- 
prisonment increased the need of their families. It 
sufficed to interest some charitable person in their 
plight. It is indeed an art to discover poverty and 
to relieve it. It must be admitted that these gen- 
tlemen were past masters in it. 

Was it not under the inspiration of this benefi- 
cent art that they knew how to extend far and 
wide for the greatest advantage of souls the assist- 
ance of their pious generosity? The letter of 1720 
mentions retreats for women and the aid given to 
Missions, foreign as well as home. It says noth- 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 79 

ing of another spiritual work of mercy of supreme 
value, and much fostered by the Fathers of the 
Society of Jesus in the seventeenth century, namely 
instruction in Christian Doctrine. This work too 
was encouraged and supported, in the poor parishes 
of Caen, by the subsidies and self-sacrifice of the 
Gentlemen's Sodality of the town. This we can 
positively affirm, thanks to a paper, unauthentic, 
it is true, but dated and very accurate: it is the 
rough draft of an authentic act in which only some 
proper names have been omitted and of which the 
following are the most important passages: 

"We, prioress, subprioress . . . acknowledge that 
we have sold and committed to the gentlemen of 
the Sodality — represented by Mr. de Lavalley de 
la Cardonniere, Priest, Prefect, — Morin, esquire, 
and Montcanisy, Vicar of Desert, Assistants, — 
Lecoq, lord of Boscq, King's councilor from the 
town of Caen, and Poutrel, lord of Argences, at 
present receivers and acceptors . . . the sum of 
thirty-five pounds eight cents at five per cent inter- 
est payable in this town of Caen . . . the said in- 
come settled upon the sum of seven hundred and 
eight pounds paid to us in cash, which the said gen- 
tlemen have declared accrued from alms presented 
to them, to be at interest which will amount every 3 
years to a hundred and six pounds, to be used as 
follows: a hundred pounds for the prize which will 
be offered at the general Catechism competition, 
which will be held, according to the regulation of 



80 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

the 25th of December, 1708, every three years, for 
the poor children, boys and girls of the six parishes 
of the suburbs of this city . . . and of the six 
pounds and four cents left, forty-one cents and four 
coppers were to be used to buy catechisms for the 
diocese, some statues and some rosaries to be dis- 
tributed by the clergy, who will teach Christian 
Doctrine privately each in the said parishes of the 
suburbs." 

What good and practical things are written in 
this old document! Is it not true that this cus- 
tom of a contest and prizes for Christian Doctrine 
among the children of several parishes of the same 
city is one which is much neglected in our days? 
And yet, what an admirable means of emulation, 
profitable not only to the children themselves but 
to their parents ! 

Sodalities in Germany 

The wonders of zeal and of charity which the 
Sodalities accomplished in France and in Italy, 
they also performed in all the other countries in 
which they were able to take root. 

In Germany, the Sodality was in very truth the 
bulwark of the faith. To it Treves and Wurzburg 
owe their triumph. All Bavaria rallied to its 
standard; more than thirty thousand men gave 
their names and saved the faith of their country. 
Alsace and Fribourg in Switzerland, became through 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 81 

their Sodalities invincible strongholds of Catholi- 
cism in the heart of Protestant nations. 29 



Fribourg in Switzerland 

In 1581, on the Feast of All Saints, the canonical 
erection of the Sodality of Fribourg took place. 
Vying in fervor with the most flourishing of the 
pious associations, this Sodality was especially edi- 
fying in the loving and grateful devotion, one 
might say, which it practised towards its founder, 
the Blessed Canisius. It is the privilege of Saints 
to exert that power of attraction and to captivate 
souls by the charm of virtue. 

It was the custom to note on a roll of honor the 
good works accomplished every month by the So- 
dalists. Here is an example of this spiritual 
treasure, from a Latin manuscript kept in the 
cantonal library of Fribourg. 

"During this month of November, 1594, the So- 
dalists have said the five decades of the rosary 
some 200 times. They have recited the Penitential 
Psalms 121 times, the Litany of the Saints 79 times, 
the Litany of the Blessed Virgin 53 times, that of 
the Holy Name of Jesus 28 times, the Office of the 
Blessed Virgin 12 times; that of the Holy Ghost 
11 times, that of the Blessed Sacrament 6 times. 

"One of them recited the Penitential Psalms 14 
times for Father Canisius and took the discipline 

29 Doyotte, The Sodality of the Blessed Virgin. 



82 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

three times. Another recited the Rosary for Father 
Canisius. Another recited the Office of the Blessed 
Virgin for Father Canisius. Another, every time 
that he went to pray in the Church of St. Nicholas, 
recited the Ave Maris Stella, or the Vent Creator 
and the Litany of the Holy Name of Jesus for 
Father Canisius. Another said the 5 decades of 
the rosary three times for Father Canisius. An- 
other made a pilgrimage to Givisiez, recited there 
the Penitential Psalms, the Litanies of the Holy 
Name of Jesus, and of the Blessed Virgin and of 
all the Saints, the beads three times and 5 Our 
Fathers and Hail Marys with arms extended for 
Father Canisius. The same one heard seven 
Masses for the conversion of India. Another for 
5 days recited each evening, kneeling, the Litany 
of the Blessed Virgin and three Our Fathers and 
Hail Marys for his own sins; this same Sodalist 
said the Penitential Psalms twice for Father Cani- 
sius. Another recited his rosary twice with arms 
extended, and the Litany of the Holy Name of 
Jesus, for Father Canisius, and five Our Fathers and 
Hail Marys in honor of the five joys of the Blessed 
Virgin, and also taught some one how to recite the 
rosary. Another said the whole rosary for Father 
Canisius and the Penitential Psalms and the Litany 
of the Blessed Virgin for the same Father. An- 
other made a pilgrimage to Bourguillon, and said 
the rosary three times and other prayers there for 
Father Canisius. Another recited several Our Fa- 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 83 

thers and Hail Marys for the King of Spain. An- 
other fasted twice, meditated several times, gave 
alms and recited the Litany of the Blessed Sacra- 
ment. Another fasted five times, recited every day 
five Our Fathers and Hail Marys for his sins and 
for the Valais, etc." 

It is unnecessary to say that the holy Religious 
had a very special predilection for the Sodality. 
Of this he gave a somewhat original proof one day, 
which is worth recording. 

In 1591, an old Manual relates, the Sodality pre- 
sented before the public of Fribourg a religious 
drama, taken from the life of the Blessed Virgin. 
The throng was enormous. But in this crowd 
which had gathered to applaud the actors, there 
was one man who attracted the attention of all: it 
was Father Canisius. Never had he crossed the 
threshold of a theater; nevertheless, he desired to 
give to his dear Sodalists this proof of paternal 
sympathy and therefore he lessened for once, in 
their favor, the austerity of his principles. The 
fact was judged worthy by the Sodalists to be re- 
corded in their annals. 



Other Countries 

Hungary, Tyrol, Austria and Poland had re- 
course to the same weapon, the Sodalities, and 
triumphed under the same banner. 

In twenty towns of Upper Germany, in which 



84 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

the Sodalities have preserved their archives, more 
than 60,000 men were enrolled: 36,000 of the upper 
class, 18,000 of the middle class, 6,000 working- 
men and 4,000 students. The Sodality numbered 
100,000 men in the whole province; 400,000 in the 
three German provinces (the Upper Rhine, the 
Lower Rhine and Upper Germany), and in all 
Germany and the German countries of Austria 
about 1,000,000. 30 In our own day, in the Sodality 
of Aix-la-Chapelle one might see more than 
15,000 men assembling in ordinary meetings around 
the pulpit of one of its Directors, Father Rothen- 
flue. Here are the statistics of the Sodalities of 
Our Lady in the Empire given at the Congress of 
German Catholics, at Cologne in 1903. — Diocese of 
Cologne, 360 Sodalities; Minister, 250; Paderborn, 
216; Treves, 108; Osnabriick, 105; Strassburg, 90; 
Breslau, 79; Freiburg in Breisgau, 72; Metz, 56; 
Mayence, 30; Fulda, 30; Luneburg, 12; Hildesheim, 
6; Gnesen, 5. For the other German-speaking 
countries (Bavaria, Switzerland and Austria), the 
Sodalen C orrespondenz 31 speaks of 4,000 aggrega- 
tions made between 1882 and 1892; which supposes 
a considerable number of Sodalists, as the Sodality 
of Altotting (Bavaria) alone, for example, num- 
bered 14,000 members and that of Ratisbon, 8,500. 

80 DOYOTTE. 

81 First year, p. 102. 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 85 

Cologne 

Cologne deserves particular regard: five So- 
dalities kept alive the spirit of work and of piety 
among the thousands of students of the College of 
the Three Crowns which the Jesuits conducted. So 
as to encourage the fervent Sodalists, Father 
Francis Coster presented them with a little Man- 
ual edited by himself, the first book that was 
published for the Sodalists of the Blessed Virgin 
(1576). In the diploma of confirmation granted 
to the Sodality of Cologne, Gregory XIII conceded 
twenty years Indulgence to any one who should 
teach any of the points of doctrine contained in 
this Manual, such as the examen of conscience and 
of confession, the method of hearing Mass, the 
meaning of the ceremonies of the Church, etc. 
Father Coster composed other works of piety or 
controversy for the Sodalities of Mary of Ant- 
werp and of Arras. The candidates whom he ad- 
mitted into the Sodality had to make publicly the 
profession of faith of the Council of Trent against 
heresy. The formula of reception which his So- 
dality Book gave — the formula still in use to-day 
— contains the pledge "never to say or do anything 
against Mary and never to permit inferiors to do 
anything against her honor." This is most prob- 
ably a protest against the blasphemies of the here- 
tics of the time. As to the old town itself, its men 
were divided into eight Sodalities; that of the 



86 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

clergy (ecclesiastical) ; that of the higher classes 
for the most prominent for blood, capital or 
science (the Major Sodality of the Annunciation 
of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the three Kings) ; 
the third, for the University Students (Minor So- 
dality of the Annunciation) ; the fourth, for heads 
of families of the middle class (Citizens' Sodality 
of Our Lady and the three Kings) ; the fifth, for 
unmarried workingmen, called the Sodality of the 
Companions; the sixth for apprentices; the 
seventh for the soldiers; finally, the eighth, for the 
gold and silversmiths of the town. 

But the College of the Three Crowns, with its 
Sodalists, remained the center of the bulwark 
against heresy. 

Some of the members taught catechism to chil- 
dren and to ignorant persons; others waged a re- 
lentless war against the works of the Lutherans; 
a few of the older ones were real missionaries, 
valuable assistants to their masters, the Jesuits, 
and to the secular clergy in converting heretics 
and in confirming wavering Catholics; all highly 
supported the rights of the old religion by the 
public practice of religious services, processions, 
pilgrimages — all that heresy treats as popish super- 
stition. Such was their salutary influence that a 
throng of Priests and the Apostolic Nuncio with 
all his household were seen to enroll themselves as 
Sodalists, and when in 1583 Archbishop Elector 
Gebhard Truchsess wished to entice his flock into 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 87 

his apostasy, the town Council found in the sup- 
port of the Sodalities courage to proclaim officially 
the maintenance of Catholicism. At the begin- 
ning of the following century (1611), twelve 
Canons inaugurated a new Sodality for Priests, 
which soon consisted of forty members and soon 
kindled the clergy's zeal for the defense of the 
faith. It continued during the whole of the 
XVIIth century. 

The same happy results were obtained in the 
other towns of the Rhine, at Treves, at Mayence, 
at Coblenz, at Spire, in Alsace, at the University 
of Molsheim in Bavaria, at Dillingen, at Munich, 
at Augsburg. In this last town the Catholic 
bakers, perceiving that they were excluded from 
the corporation by the Protestant bakers, took 
vengeance by forming amongst themselves, with 
the approbation of the town Council, a Sodality 
which wrestled victoriously against this boycott. 32 

Ingolstadt 

The Sodality of Ingolstadt, founded by Father 
James Rem, offered a sight worthy of admiration. 
The venerable Religious directed it for thirty- 
three years. One of his pious contrivances, to ex- 
cite the fervor of his Sodalists, was to assemble the 
elite among them under the name of Conference of 

32 Peter Brucker, S.J. The Sodalities of Our Lady as a 
Means of Religious and Social Action. 



88 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

Our Mother Thrice Admirable. He found at first- 
only six young school boys capable of entering 
into his views and answering to his expectations. 
But, in his eyes, the influence inherent in sanctity 
was of greater value than the number of members. 

To take part in the Conference of Mary, it was 
necessary to pledge oneself always to live in the 
state of grace. According to the rules, it was only 
at this price that one might participate in the 
spiritual favors with which Pope Paul V enriched 
the association. Sincere and adequate repentance 
alone could restore the guilty to their full rights. 

The holy Director ardently desired to know 
which of all the titles of honor given to Mary, was 
the most pleasing to this glorious Virgin. So, one 
Saturday, while the Sodalists were singing the lit- 
any of Loretto, at the moment when the invoca- 
tion Mother most Admirable was entoned, Our 
Lady suddenly appeared to him in all the splendor 
of her glory, and, smiling, deigned to bow her head 
in sign of approbation. Radiant with joy, Mary's 
servant arose, and from the corner where he was 
kneeling in prayer, advanced towards the singers, 
and made them repeat three times this beautiful 
title. After that, at every meeting, it became the 
custom to greet the Queen of Heaven thrice under 
this name, so dear to her heart. On her side, the 
Divine Mother never ceased, during two centuries, 
to show herself admirable to her children. 

Graces of cures, of vocations and of holiness 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 89 

due to the miraculous picture of this Mother 
"thrice admirable/' as she is called by the his- 
torians of the Order, made her name celebrated 
throughout Christendom. Sons of princely and 
royal families were seen coming from afar to study 
at the University of Ingolstadt, with the intention 
of becoming members of this illustrious and holy 
Sodality. Towards the middle of the XVIIIth cen- 
tury it contained still 600 members. 

A Church at Ingolstadt still preserves a tablet 
which of old adorned the Sodality chapel of the 
University. Kneeling at Mary's feet, two noble 
young men are seen clasping each other's hands 
and they seem to be asking the Blessed Virgin to 
bless their friendship. One of them is the Arch- 
duke Ferdinand, whose signature a register of the 
Sodality at Louvain still bears in the following 
words: "Ferdinand II, Emperor, Sodalist of the 
Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God." The other 
figure is his ally Maximilian, who was at the head 
of the Catholic League and was named by his im- 
perial friend Prince-Elector of Bavaria. Both had 
as commander-in-chief of their troops the illus- 
trious Count Tilly, who was also a Sodalist. 



Other Cities 

German historians, even the Protestants, are 
unanimous in the assertion that it was due to the 
united efforts of the Sodalists of all classes that the 



90 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

Reformation was prevented from submerging the 
Empire and that after the terrible Thirty Years' 
War, the Counter-Reformation was made possible 
which saved the ruins of Catholic Germany. 

A similar fact is attested by the process of be- 
atification of Blessed Canisius, where the witnesses 
affirmed that to protect the Catholic Faith in the 
canton of Fribourg in Switzerland, Providence 
made use of the Young Men's Sodality which the 
Blessed had established there in 1581, even before 
he opened the College. Only those who were over 
twenty years of age were eligible to it. As time 
went on, besides the Students' Sodality, the city had 
three others, one for men, one for young men and 
one for young women. Their powerful organization 
defied the attacks and injuries of the heretics of 
Geneva. To this day, Fribourg has remained faith- 
ful to its religion, to the memory of its Apostle, 
whose tomb it guards, and to its Sodality of the 
Blessed Virgin. 

In 1653, Bohemia had 67 Sodalities, which 
recruited their members in the ranks of the clergy 
and the nobility, as well as among the students 
and citizens. 

Among the Austrian Sodalities, that of Vienna 
must be remarked. Founded in 1579 in the Col- 
lege of the Society of Jesus, it was two years later 
united to the Confraternity of St. Barbara, which 
was honored 15 years before by the virtues of St. 
Stanislaus Kostka. A few years ago, Vienna had 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 91 

90 Sodalities, twenty-eight of which were for men, 
eighteen for young men, sixteen for married 
women, twenty-eight for young women. 



Sodalities in Poland 

In Poland, the Sodality of Our Lady played an 
important part in the religious life of the last cen- 
turies. "It existed," says Maryan de Bartynow- 
ski, "in the schools and colleges of the Society of 
Jesus, where it was kept up until the Suppression 
of the Society in 1773. As the pupils of these 
schools were for the most part of noble birth, the 
Sodalists were so widely dispersed everywhere, 
that in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, 
the name of Sodalis Marianus was quite insepa- 
rable from the ideal that was entertained of a 
Polish gentleman." 

The Sodality was not, however, the exclusive 
possession of the nobility: the Citizens had one of 
their own. The title of Sodalist was so highly 
esteemed that the oath, "As I am a Sodalist of Our 
Lady," was at that time the most certain guaran- 
tee of truth. A lively, ardent faith, united to fear- 
less and irreproachable valor, loyalty and nobility 
of character; above all a real devotion to the 
Blessed Virgin — such were the distinctive qualities 
of Our Lady's Sodalist. 

A report presented at the International Marian 
Congress of Fribourg in August, 1902, furnishes us 



92 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

with most interesting details concerning the his- 
tory of the Polish Sodalities and about the part 
which the Jesuits played therein. These few 
pages are too zealously penned not to find a place 
in a history of Sodalities of Our Lady. 

It was at the zenith of Poland's prosperity 33 
that the first Sodality of the Servants of Mary 
was founded at Plock in 1585, only one year after 
the Prima Primaria had been approved by Greg- 
ory XIII. From that moment, the Sodality began 
to spread in Poland, not only as a manifestation 
of the piety of the faithful, but also as an institu- 
tion of religious and social importance. 

Pope Gregory XIII, in promulgating the Bull of 
Erection of the Prima Primaria, put at its head 
the successive Generals of the Jesuit Order. Hence 
it was that in Poland, as in all Christendom, the 
Sodalities of Our Lady always developed in the 
places where the sons of St. Ignatius were to be 
found, who can thus be regarded as their propa- 
gaters and beneficent friends. 

In 1600, Poland had already several Sodalities, 
at Plock, at Kalicz, at Lublin and at Jaroslau. In 
1601, one was founded at Cracow for the Univer- 
sity students, under the title of the Assumption of 
the Blessed Virgin. In 1618, King Sigismund III, 
the Queen, the Dauphin, Ladislaus-Sigismund, and 

33 The following paragraphs were written in the year 1902, 
and are from the Compte rendu du Congres Marial, I. 
574, ff. 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 93 

many distinguished personages and court dignita- 
ries, lay as well as ecclesiastics, were numbered in 
its ranks. 

At the beginning of the 17th century the most 
famous Sodality in Poland was that called Con- 
gregatio nobilis, which had its seat at the Church 
of St. Peter in Cracow, but was later on transferred 
to St. Barbara's. 

In 1619, commenced the Sodality for burghers 
and artisans under the title of the Visitation of 
Our Lady, always directed by the Jesuit Fathers. 

At Warsaw, in 1642, the Sodality of the Immacu- 
late Conception was established, in which King 
Ladislaus IV was one of the first to be inscribed 
and to pronounce his Act of Consecration. 

Very accurate documents testify that towards 
the middle of the 18th century, more than 20,000 
Poles gloried in the title of 'Servants of Mary.' 
And it was not a mere name. All strove to ac- 
complish their own sanctification and to acquire 
those virtues which would make of them strong 
men, full of activity and devotion, men of sound 
convictions, who found in the Faith the source 
and motive of their lives. 

The year 1772 was sadly marked in the history 
of Our Lady's Sodalities by a most disastrous 
event; their very existence was threatened and 
their development checked by the suppression of 
the Jesuit Order. They did not entirely disappear, 
however, though they lost much of their splendor 



94 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

and the number of their adherents greatly dimin- 
ished. First the ex-Jesuits kept them up, then the 
Fathers of the Pious Schools. Being at the head 
of flourishing schools, they were able to recruit 
among the pupils new servants and cavaliers of 
Mary. These were not, however, the old time 
Sodalities. 

From the year 1814, that is from the happy mo- 
ment for the Catholic Church when the saintly 
Pope Pius VII published the Bull which restored 
the Society of Jesus to life, the Sodalities of Our 
Lady resumed their work. Multiplying, develop- 
ing, they reappeared through all Europe as well 
as in America, in Australia and even in China, 

Poland did not allow itself to be surpassed and 
if the sum total of the Sodalities and Sodalists did 
not come up to that which had been attained in the 
18th century, one must take into consideration the 
dismemberment of the country. Divided into three 
parts, it was restricted, then as it is to-day, in two 
of its provinces (under the Russian and German 
governments) in its liberty of conscience. Its in- 
habitants were not free to learn their prayers in 
their own language, nor to invoke the Blessed Vir- 
gin by the title of Queen of the Kingdom of Po- 
land without exposing themselves to great penalties 
and persecutions. The Jesuits, returning to Ga- 
licia in 1822, reestablished the Sodalities for stu- 
dents at Lemberg, next, in 1848, at Saez and in 
1872 at Tarnopol. The last named Sodality was 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 95 

transferred in 1886 to Chyrow to the great Jesuit 
College, where it is still flourishing. But it is above 
all since the year 1882 that a revival of fervor 
has taken place in the Galician Sodalities. 

Cracow, justly surnamed the Rome of Poland, 
distinguished itself in the front ranks and held 
within the circuit of its ancient ramparts in 1902 
as many as 7 Sodalities of Our Lady and among 
others those of the nobles, of the merchants, of the 
ecclesiastics of the diocese, of the pupils of the 
high schools. The oldest of all was that of the 
merchants, which was later on divided into those 
of the nobles and of the merchants and which 
founded and protected the Sodality of young com- 
mercial apprentices. In the above-mentioned year, 
the most active and the worthiest of all praise was 
the students' Sodality, founded by Father Moraw- 
ski, Professor of Dogmatic Theology at the Uni- 
versity of Cracow and of Theology at the College 
of the Jesuit Fathers, so well known for his holi- 
ness and extraordinary intelligence. These youths 
exercised the best influence over the University, 
encouraged others by their example to do good, 
and induced their school fellows to take up the 
practice of religion and do social work. It was 
from their ranks that the lecturers came forth who 
addressed the tradesmen's and workingmen's so- 
cieties, so numerous nowadays. They also directed 
a work which provided food gratuitously to the 
poorest of the collegians. 



96 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

The Merchants' Sodality, similar to but inde- 
pendent of the Nobles', besides the personal sancti- 
fication of its members by devotional services and 
four General Communions a year, had the further 
aim of exerting influence abroad, first by strength- 
ening Catholic tendencies among its young mem- 
bers and by making the Sunday observance gen- 
eral, secondly by collecting munificent alms to 
support good works. 

The members of these three Sodalities were zeal- 
ous cooperators of the Society of St. Vincent de 
Paul and many of them belonged to the Catholic 
Club of Cracow. Almost every year they sent to 
Rome a Peter's Pence collected among themselves. 
The quarterly review, Sodalis Marianus, conse- 
crated to the interests of the Sodality, was edited 
under their care. 

Six of the Sodalities mentioned above, that is all 
in Cracow, with the exception of that of the Priests 
of the diocese, were directed by Father Stephen 
Bratkowski, S.J., whose great heart and assidu- 
ous, intelligent labor, as much as his exceptional 
eloquence, excited in all a deepfelt recognition. 
All these Sodalists were and had been working 
energetically for some time to reform the current 
ideas on the subject of duels and were making an 
active propaganda outside the circle of their own 
members. It is unnecessary to add that they all 
made their annual retreat. 

The Sodality founded at Lemberg in 1888, de- 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 97 

veloped rapidly and the number of its members 
increased to such a degree that it had to be di- 
vided into two, one for the nobles, the other for 
the students. Both pursued the same object as the 
Sodality of Cracow and their influence made itself 
felt in a salutary way through the Galician capi- 
tal. In addition to the meetings, devotional exer- 
cises and General Communions, their particular 
fields of work were the Conferences of St. Vincent 
de Paul and the Catholic Literary Society — a very 
numerous club, the members of which were men 
of true worth and exercised an excellent social and 
Catholic influence. Lemberg possesses still an- 
other Sodality of "Servants of Mary" composed 
of Seminarians of the great Latin Seminary. 

One more word about the Sodalities recently 
established in the provincial towns of Galicia. 
Their mission was of much greater extent because 
they were mostly composed of rural proprietors, 
whose influence, exercised over numerous servants 
both in the castle and on the farm, extended 
sometimes over thousands of agricultural laborers 
and peasant proprietors whom the current of ir- 
religion had already commenced to injure. The 
Sodalities of Our Lady, founded by the Jesuits at 
Sauselles, at Sambor, at Rreszs'w were of this kind. 

The Sodality of Sambor was one of the most ac- 
tive in Galicia. Working to instil morality into 
society, and above all into the people, it united the 
proprietors of the districts of Sambor and Prze- 



98 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

my si. The propaganda was carried on chiefly by 
personal example, by the example of the servants 
and by the foundation of circulating libraries in 
the villages. 

Sodalities in Spain 

Like Poland, Spain, in its turn, welcomed the 
Sodality with the greatest fervor. 

The Sodality of the College of Montesion, Ma- 
jorca, a house sanctified for so long a time by the 
presence of St. Alphonsus Rodriguez, was the first 
established by the Spanish Jesuits. 

Barcelona 

In the peninsula, Barcelona was the first of the 
Iberian cities to open its doors to the Sodality in 
1577; an example which was followed the ensuing 
year by Valencia and Saragossa. Its cradle was 
the University of Barcelona and it began with 16 
students of Theology and as many of Philosophy. 
In May, 1585, Philip II, while visiting the Univer- 
sity, assisted at a solemn artistic and theological 
session, given by the Sodalists, who then numbered 
120. 

In 1599, a section for married laymen was 
formed, the special aim of which was to visit pris- 
oners and assist the sick. Every Sunday, six or 
eight of these gentlemen went to the general hos- 
pital to care for the infirm and to help them to 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 99 

dress. "And after they had washed the hands of 
the sick/' says a contemporary, "the Sodalists per- 
fumed them and their faces with rose water, that 
the poor sufferers might find some relief in the 
agreeable scent." 

The year 1611 saw the foundation, by the in- 
itiative of the Rector of the Jesuits, of a Priests' 
Sodality under the title of the Immaculate Concep- 
tion. It soon reckoned a large number of eminent 
ecclesiastics among its members. 

With its Directors, the Jesuits, the Barcelona 
Sodality disappeared at the time of the tempest in 
the 18th century, which swept away the Society of 
Jesus, and one has to wait until 1878 to see it rise 
again from its ashes under the inspiration of Father 
Anthony Rota, S.J. To-day, it is in full prosper- 
ity. With Fr. Aloysius Fiter, S.J., as Director, 
it became one of the most fruitful apostolic works 
of the capital of Catalonia. Its yearly catalogues 
bear witness to the fact. Thus in that for the year 
1902, among the eminent personages who were 
members of this Sodality we remark His Eminence 
Card. Cretoni, who was apostolic Nuncio to the 
Court in Madrid, Mgr. Raphael Gonzalez, Arch- 
bishop of Quito, Ecuador, the Bishops of Lerida, 
Teruel, Jaen, Palencia, Tulancingo (Mexico), de la 
Serena, de la Concepcion, de San Carlos de Ancud 
(all three in Chile), Trincomali in Ceylon. 

The Sodality in 1911 numbered 1500 members, 
divided into 12 Sections, to each of which a special 



100 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

work of charity or piety was assigned, namely: 
daily Mass, weekly Mass, weekly Communion, the 
Laus Perennis, or perpetual veneration of Our Lady 
Immaculate, of St. Joseph and of St. Aloysius 
Gonzaga, Laborers' unions, Catechism instructions, 
visits to the hospitals of the Holy Cross, of St. 
Lazarus and of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, the 
apostolate of the press, visits to the city work- 
house, nightly adoration. 

The Laus Perennis Section had a Mass cele- 
brated every Saturday at the Sodality altar, dedi- 
cated to the Immaculate Conception. At the same 
altar, moreover, every Sodalist of the Section in 
turn spent a half hour in prayer on the day chosen 
by him. These visits were divided in such a way 
that each day had a certain number of them. 

In addition to this, the intellectual cultivation 
of the Sodalists was secured by nine Academies: 
law and sociology, philosophy and letters, medi- 
cine, science, industry and mechanics, music, fine 
arts, living languages and rhetoric. Attendance at 
one of these Academies was obligatory for those 
Sodalists who had not completed their studies. 

There was another feature in which this So- 
dality closely resembled the model type of the old 
Sodalities: it had no kind of amusement associa- 
tion as extension or annex, such as sport, clubs, 
plays, etc.: its life was exclusively devout and 
scientific. 

Its Director had absolute authority over it and 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 101 

to maintain it in its flourishing condition, he ruled 
it with a fatherly hand, no doubt, but a very firm 
one. Every year there were numerous dismissals. 
This is the pruning destined to preserve the trunk 
in all its vigor. 

The Spanish American Sodality Congress of 1904 

To the Directors of this Sodality the glory is 
due of having conceived in Mary's honor a grand 
project which will remain one of the most glorious 
memories of the jubilee celebrations of her Im- 
maculate Conception in 1904. We mean the Con- 
gress of all the Spanish American Sodalities affili- 
ated to the Prima Primaria of Rome. The Com- 
mission of Cardinals which directed the general 
movement of the religious solemnities for this jubi- 
lee, largely blessed and heartily encouraged this 
Marial assembly, adding that it hoped the Con- 
gress would be an efficacious preparation for the 
international Congress to be held at Rome on 8 
Dec, 1904. 

Cardinal Salvator Casanas of Barcelona, on his 
side, warmly commended the project in the follow- 
ing letter, dated 27 Dec, 1903. 

"It is with real pleasure and true spiritual con- 
solation that we have heard from the Sodality of 
the Immaculate Virgin Mary and St. Aloysius, 
which we love much in Our Lord, the statement of 
the magnificent plan which you have conceived 



102 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

and which the Commission of Cardinals at Rome 
has ratified and blessed, to glorify your heavenly 
Patroness on the occasion of the 50th anniversary 
of the dogmatic definition of her Immaculate Con- 
ception, by the convocation in this city of Barce- 
lona of a Spanish American Congress of the So- 
dalities of the Blessed Virgin aggregated to the 
Prima Primaria of Rome. 

"It is fitting that your Sodality, which is so ar- 
dent in its devotion to Mary Immaculate and 
which honors her every day of obligation by the 
recitation of the Little Office, it is meet, we say, 
and most suitable for it to celebrate with enthusi- 
asm this feast so memorable for the entire Church. 
We do not doubt but that your celestial Patroness 
will welcome your efforts, will lovingly bless them, 
and will prepare abundant graces for you, in or- 
der that the feast may be splendid, worthy both 
of the magnitude of its object and of the impor- 
tance of your Sodality. 

"We are happy and we congratulate ourselves 
that it is a Sodality of our beloved diocese which 
has taken the initiative in this great demonstra- 
tion of love on the part of the Sodalities of the 
Blessed Virgin. As for us, we bless your project; 
it is with real satisfaction that we take it under 
our protection and we accept the direction of the 
Spanish American Congress during the period of 
time it is held in this city. 

"It is a great pleasure, moreover, for us, to bless 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 103 

your Sodality, beseeching Our Lord to crown it 
with graces and benedictions." 

The Spanish American Congress took place, in- 
deed, from the 22nd to the 27th of November, 
1904. 34 It was a splendid manifestation worthy of 
the Spanish people, so devoted, above all others, 
to the Immaculate Mother of God. Some 30,000 
persons, 15,000 of whom were men, took part in 
the closing procession, and in the marvelous array 
of banners waving in the wind, the sons of Spain 
saw floating, not without emotion, the four stand- 
ards of Lepanto, which are religiously preserved 
in the royal chapel del Patau. 

But we must return to the ancient Sodalities of 
the Iberian peninsula. 

Madrid possessed one of the first Marian asso- 
ciations for young men, which served as a model 
for many others in all parts of Spain. 

At Granada, 300 Sodalists were engaged in visit- 
ing the hospitals, in finding positions for destitute 
young girls and in assisting all the indigent. 

At Cordova, they took a special interest in the 
prisoners who were languishing in debtors' prisons. 
Every week two members of the Sodality, one a 
Priest, the other a lawyer, came to them and ac- 
tively helped to expedite the cases in suspense. 

34 The account of the Congress forms an octavo volume 
of 700 pages, close print. It is a precious mine of informa- 
tion on the Spanish Sodalities. 



104 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

Others went through the city on certain days, col- 
lecting in the streets 400 or 500 vagabonds or beg- 
gars whom they brought to the Jesuit Church to 
prepare them for the reception of the Sacraments 
of Penance and Holy Eucharist. 

Seville witnessed the establishment of a Sodality 
exclusively composed of lawyers; its aim was to 
take charge gratuitously of the cases of the poor 
and of strangers, to settle disputes and thus to 
avoid proceedings at law, expensive and fatal to 
family peace. 

In the same city, the Priests' Sodality of the Im- 
maculate Conception, had as its object to enhance 
the splendor of divine worship, especially during the 
Forty Hours' devotion. As a result, the people 
came in throngs to the Church, abandoning the 
dangerous Carnival shows. 

The first Sodality erected in the Philippine 
Islands dates from the year 1600. It was founded 
in the Jesuit College of Manila under the rector- 
ship of Fr. Peter Chirino. 



Sodalities in Portugal 

Under John IV, the Sodality flourished in Por- 
tugal. This prince had established one in his own 
palace for his pages and the noblemen of the court. 
The pious king consecrated his person and his king- 
dom to Mary Immaculate, and he desired, in or- 
der to perpetuate the memory of the consecration, 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 105 

that an inscription should be placed on the city 
gates and the gates of the kingdom's strongholds, 
which reads as follows: 

"John IV, king of Portugal, together with his 
Council, during the yearly tributary census, pub- 
licly consecrated himself and his kingdom forever 
to the Most Immaculate Conception of Mary and 
swore to defend the Mother of God, ever preserved 
from original sin, whom he had chosen as the 
Patroness of the Empire, and he ordered this last- 
ing memorial in stone to be erected to foster the 
piety of the people of Portugal. In the year of 
Our Lord, 1656, the 17th year of his reign." 

The king himself was the Prefect and sometimes 
even the preacher of his Sodality. 

Of all the cities of the kingdom, Lisbon and 
Evora dispute the honor of having been the first 
to welcome the pious associations of Mary. The 
fact is, the dates of their foundation belong to the 
same year, 1583. 



Sodalities in Belgium 

In Belgium, Bruges, Ypres, Mons and a number 
of other cities opened their doors to the Sodality. 
And Brussels, first of all, had eight Sodalities; 
then Malines and Louvain seven, with a total of 
1600 Sodalists. In 1885, the Catholic University 
of the last mentioned city celebrated with solemnity 



106 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

the tercentenary of the foundation of the students' 
Sodality, which in 1911 numbered 800 members. 

Formerly, the Belgian capital had as many as 19 
Sodalities for men and young men. Its Latin So- 
dality gloried in the possession of 20 members of 
the Privy Council and of the Chancery of Bra- 
bant. 

At first, that is in 1594, Douai had but two So- 
dalities, composed of 400 members, but later on 
the College of Anchin comprised eight and was 
able to send to Our Lady of the Holy Girdle at 
Valenciennes and to the miraculous Crucifix at 
Arras as many as 800 pilgrims, all Sodalists. 

Antwerp 

Antwerp, above all, with its nine Sodalities of 
the Blessed Virgin, distinguished itself by its zeal. 
The Sodality of the Immaculate Conception was 
very probably the first Belgian Sodality aggregated 
to the Prima Primaria of Rome. Its manuscript 
history, preserved in the Archives of the Jesuit 
College of Louvain, opens with these words: "In 
the year of Our Lord, 1585, on Dec. 8th, the Feast 
of Our Lady Immaculate, the Sodality of the Most 
Blessed Virgin Mary, the most Pure Mother of 
God, was inaugurated at Antwerp and met for the 
first time at the College of the Society of Jesus 
in the presence of Father Francis Coster, Provin- 
cial of the same Society in Belgium. The former 
members of the Sodalities of Cologne, Douai and 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 107 

elsewhere, who were banished because of their re- 
ligion by the Guelf rebels against His Majesty, 
were called to it. Father Coster gave up to the 
Sodality the Hall of the Colonels, where the afore- 
said Colonels or officers held their meeting during 
the rebellion and plotted against religion, the King 
and the honest citizens of the town; so that this 
haunt of the devil and his instruments was seen 
transformed into a chosen dwelling of God and His 
gentle Mother Mary, the Patroness of the above 
mentioned Sodality." 

One of the characteristic traits of the Reforma- 
tion was blasphemy against the August Mother of 
God. Those sects had vilely profaned her images; 
the Sodality of Father Coster had it at heart to 
get up a solemn reparation. They actually did 
manage to decorate the fagade of the City Hall 
of Antwerp with a statue of the Immaculate Vir- 
gin, bought at their own expense, and in the pres- 
ence of the chief Magistrate and the crowd that 
came running from all sides to witness the spec- 
tacle, adorned it with the scepter and crown, the in- 
signia of her sovereignty over this capital of com- 
merce. 

After less than a century's existence in Belgium, 
the Jesuits of the Franco-Belgian Province were 
directing 90 Sodalities, almost exclusively com- 
posed of men. 

Many of the Sodalities won respect and honor 
by an oath to defend the Immaculate Conception, 



108 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

which they exacted from their members. Of this 
number was the Sodality of Lille in 1657, and that 
of the great city of Brussels in 1661, whose ex- 
ample and efforts ended in the Consecration of the 
States of Brabant to the Immaculate Virgin. The 
Sodality at that time was directed by Father 
Henry Balde, S.J., of Ypres, who fulfilled this 
function for 17 years. The devout and magnificent 
ceremony took place in the Royal Chapel of the 
Dominican Church, where the Spanish nobility 
were accustomed to assemble. The highest digni- 
taries of Church and State arranged to meet there. 
The Archbishop of Malines, representing the clergy, 
and the Duke d'Aerschot, the nobility, were sur- 
rounded by the chief magistrates of Louvain, Brus- 
sels and Antwerp, who, in turn, were accompanied 
by their syndics. When the Holy Sacrifice was 
completed, the Archbishop advanced to the altar 
and kneeling on the steps read the formula of the 
oath which all the members of the States had 
previously signed. After that, Father de Fresneda, 
S.J., pronounced an address in Spanish, another 
orator spoke immediately afterwards in French, 
and during eight days ceremonies and speeches fol- 
lowed in succession to the glory of the Immaculate 
Virgin. A second octave of celebrations ensued to 
permit the parish clergy and the Religious Orders 
to come and take the same oath. 

In our days, the activity of the Belgian Jesuits 
is not less than was that of their predecessors. 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 109 

From statistics of 1904, they directed 39 men's 
Sodalities, containing 8,012 members, of whom 1,406 
belonged to the upper classes. In the five cities 
possessing Universities (Louvain, Liege, Ghent, 
Brussels, Namur) they were at the head of flour- 
ishing students' Sodalities. Their Sodalities formed 
among the middle classes or in the working classes 
were particularly prosperous; such, for example, as 
the Sodality of Turnhout, which counted 750 mem- 
bers. 

Sodalities in Holland 

In the neighboring kingdom of Holland the Ma- 
rial Sodalities have contributed not a little in our 
day to the Catholic movement, so full of hopes for 
the future. Since 1870 there has existed at Maas- 
tricht a flourishing Workingmen's Sodality, directed 
by the Jesuits, which might well serve as a model 
for all Sodalities of its kind. In 1904, it numbered 
1,386 members. A few details taken from its an- 
nals will show its social and religious influence. 

At each meeting, the Sodalists pray in common 
for their employers, for whose intention a Mass is 
celebrated each year. The employers are invited to 
it and they respond in large numbers to the invita- 
tion. One year, 84 assisted at the service. 

In 1891, the Sodalists considered it their duty to 
celebrate solemnly the Golden Episcopal Jubilee 
of Leo XIII. On that occasion, they invited the 
high personages who were decorated with Pontif- 



110 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

ical orders. All, except one who was legitimately 
prevented, answered the invitation, even the Gover- 
nor of the Province as Commander of St. Gregory. 

In 1896, when the Sodality celebrated the twenty- 
fifth Anniversary of its establishment, the aristoc- 
racy of the town, at the Sodalists' request, agreed 
to form a mounted guard of honor to escort the 
Bishop who came that day to celebrate Pontifical 
Mass in the Sodality Chapel. 

In this way the question of the class union was 
solved in practice. 

The Sodality in Holland is a force which must 
henceforth be reckoned with. In 1895, the social- 
ists inaugurated a strike. Thanks to the Sodalists, 
a Catholic Association was at once founded in op- 
position which crushed the revolutionary effort. 

In June, 1903, the elections for the provincial 
Council took place. Against a fervent Sodalist, 
a Catholic of doubtful Catholicity was set up. 
About the latter the freemasons, Jews, liberals and 
socialists united, quite certain of success. The So- 
dalist workingmen entered the campaign and their 
candidate won by a large majority. The discon- 
certed socialists thus learned that by belonging to 
a pious association civil rights are not forfeited. 

A very remarkable incident occurred in 1894 
on a purely religious ground. Cholera broke out 
in the city. In 2 or 3 days it had seized 100 vic- 
tims. Then the Sodalists went from house to house 
distributing thousands of pamphlets on which were 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 111 

printed a prayer to St. Ignatius Loyola, and a 
recommendation of the water well known by the 
name of St. Ignatius Water. That very day the 
cholera suddenly ceased, all the sick without ex- 
ception recovered, and not a single fresh case broke 
out. There was but one voice throughout the city 
to recognize the marvelous character of the event. 

Sodalities in China 

There is no place, not even in heathen lands, 
where the vigorous tree of the Sodality has not 
struck powerful root. In 1664, 87 years after China 
had opened her doors to the preaching of the Gos- 
pel, the Christian religion, and with it the devotion 
to Our Lady, had penetrated into ten provinces. 
More than 400 Sodalities had been established 
there in honor of the Blessed Virgin and in honor 
of the Passion of her Divine Son. They often con- 
tained more than a hundred members, chosen from 
among the most fervent neophytes: zealous eate- 
chists were formed therein. They were undoubtedly 
largely instrumental in the work of conversions, 
the number of which about this time mounted up 
to 5,000 and even 6,000 a year. The Sodality of 
the Mother of God at Peking provided for the 
needs of destitute Christians. 

In the new Missions of China, the Jesuits have 
had recourse, as did their predecessors, to the So- 
dality of the Blessed Virgin to render their apop* 



112 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

tolate fruitful. The latter had founded in the 
country more than four hundred Marian associa- 
tions. At the time of the tercentenary of the foun- 
dation of the Prima Primaria in 1884, celebrated 
with such splendor throughout the Christian world, 
the members of the Sodality of the Immaculate 
Conception at Tong-Kia-Tou, the southern suburb 
of Shanghai, addressed to the Sodalists at Rome, 
a letter of congratulation, a touching mark of the 
union which reigns in the great family of Mary 
and most interesting for this reason. 

It was written in Chinese on white silk. The 
two outside folds which formed the envelope were 
richly embroidered with dazzling colored silks. 
Here is the literal translation of this original docu- 
ment: 

"To the Prefect and all the Members of the First 
Sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary, greeting. 

"We, considering that every tree has a root, every 
river a source, everything an origin whence it has 
arisen, if we ask ourselves where our little So- 
dality, already more than twenty years old, came 
from, we find that your noble Sodality is the 
origin of ours. 

"Having been informed that the anniversary of 
the day of your Foundation is at hand, and that 
the Sovereign Pontiff has granted you special fa- 
vors, we, the least of your brethren, who are united 
to you in heart, as the members are to the body 
(and they are really so), we who are linked to you 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 113 

at least as the hand and foot are attached to the 
body, we, who as well as you are children of our 
good Mother Mary, on this day when your So- 
dality tastes so great a happiness, thought we 
ought to write to you this little letter. 

"We shall pray that Mary will give you great 
graces. We hope that you will pray for us that we 
may remain steadfast in the Faith and may enjoy 
your presence in Heaven. 

"We greet you and we wish you great peace. 
Your heart will guess the rest; we shall say nothing 
of it. 

"Given at Tong-Kia-Tou, City of Shanghai, in 
China, the tenth year of the emperor Kouang- 
Sin, the tenth of the moon, the thirteenth day." 

[Nov. 30th, 1884.] 

Signed: Aloysius Sicca, S.J., Director, Stanis- 
laus Shang, Prefect, Matthew Sin, Secretary. 



Sodalities in Paraguay 

The numerous Reductions which were formed in 
the Missions of Paraguay under the names of the 
Assumption, Loretto, the Immaculate Conception 
and similar titles, witnessed the formation in their 
midst of bodies of chosen souls, under the protec- 
tion of Mary. Christian piety will not be aston- 
ished, therefore, at these words of the Bishop of 
Buenos Aires, Dom Pietro Fayardo: "I do not 



114 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

believe that during the entire year a single mortal 
sin is committed in the Reductions." 



Sodalities in Canada 

Canada is justly proud to-day of its magnificent 
men's Sodalities. So we read in a report to the 
Marian Congress held at Lyons in September, 1900: 
"At the very time of the foundation of the colony, 
in 1657, the Fathers of the Society of Jesus or- 
ganized at Quebec the first Men's Sodality in honor 
of the Blessed Virgin. The Governor of Quebec 
and all the leading citizens of the town were proud 
to belong to it. This Sodality still exists and new 
centers have been formed. At the present day, 
the five men's Sodalities of the city of Quebec have 
more than four thousand associates out of a Catho- 
lic population of fifty thousand souls. 

"Montreal followed Quebec's example. A men's 
Sodality was founded there by the Jesuits and they 
directed it until the suppression of the Society and 
till the death of the last Jesuit in Montreal at the 
close of the last century." 

The Quebec Sodality was the first of these asso- 
ciations founded under the patronage of Mary in 
America. By right of this precedence, particular 
notice should be paid to it. 35 

35 Histoire de la Congregation de Notre Dame de Quebec, 
1657-1903. Canadian Messenger of the Sacred Heart, Dec. 
1902, Jan. 1903. 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 115 

Father Poncet, then pastor of Quebec, laid its 
foundations under the administration of Father de 
Quen, Superior of the Canadian Missions. In the 
Journal des Jesuites, dated Ash Wednesday, 14 
Feb., 1657, is the following description: "Father 
Poncet held the first meeting of the Sodalists of 
Our Lady in his room. There were twelve of 
them." A few lines further on, dated 24 Feb.: 
"M. Vignard said the first Mass in the Chapel of 
Our Lady's Sodality. At the first meeting of the 
Sodalists, M. de Charny was recognized as Pre- 
fect of the said Sodality." M. Vignard (or Vig- 
nel) was one of the few secular Priests who then 
lived in Canada. Later on he became a Confessor 
of the faith. 

Father Poncet was a man of great worth who had 
been on the point of dying a martyr for the Faith. 
Carried off by the Iroquois near Sillery in 1653, 
he endured two months of terrible captivity. 
Bruised by cudgeling, exhausted by the tortures 
of hunger and thirst, he had his fingers partly 
burned off and the index finger mutilated. Every 
day he expected to be put to death, when suddenly 
he was liberated by the Indians in view of the re- 
establishment of peace. 

Father Poncet chose twelve of the chief citizens 
of Quebec who were to serve as foundation stones 
to the new edifice. The first Prefect was Charles 
de Lauzon, M. de Charny, son of John de Lauzon, 
Governor of Canada, and at the time of his elec- 



116 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

tion to the Sodality, provisional Governor of the 
new Colony. He was a man remarkable for his 
piety and learning. The following year he entered 
the ecclesiastical state. 

Prominent men, such as the Marquis de Tracy, 
Royal Lieutenant Governor of all America, were 
proud to belong to the Sodality. The Marquis 
chose the Feast of the Assumption, 15 Aug., 1666, 
to make his solemn Consecration to Mary, and as 
he was desirous of sanctifying the great day by 
an act of charity and humility, he gave a dinner to 
the poor of the hospital and served them himself, 
seeing in them the suffering members of Jesus 
Christ. 

This example, moreover, was not a new one. 
On 15 Aug., 1659, the day Mgr. de Laval had been 
invited to say Mass for the Sodality, as an ex- 
pression of his gratitude for this honor, he waited 
on the unfortunate inmates of the same hospital. 

The Chronicle of the city hospital has perpetu- 
ated the memory of a Sodalist called Peter Gosse- 
let, a native of Charlesbourg. He was a very pious 
man who spent long hours before the Blessed Sac- 
rament and edified everybody by his unalterable 
patience. As long as he was able to walk, he never 
failed to come to Quebec to assist at the Sodality 
meetings. One day when he had set out early in 
the morning, as his eyesight was very feeble, he 
lost his way. Being weary and fearing to miss the 
meeting, he called out with his simple faith: "Oh, 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 117 

my dear Mother, I know not where I am; have 
mercy on me!" Instantly a beautiful lady was at 
his side, who took him by the hand. "Come, my 
friend," she said to him, "I shall set you on your 
way again." She did indeed guide him, then 
added: "Go ahead now, you are on the way." 
Peter thanked her, advanced a little way and, 
turning back to see if his charitable guide was fol- 
lowing him, he saw no one. 

During the entire seventeenth century the So- 
dalists distinguished themselves by their fervor. 
For a long time, they enjoyed the exclusive honor 
of carrying the canopy on the feast of Corpus 
Christi. From 1661 they made the visits to the 
Churches on Holy Saturday in a body. One of 
their Directors, Fr. Guesnier, even introduced the 
custom of a meditation in common every Saturday 
morning. 

This Sodality still exists. With the approbation 
of Mgr. Turgeon, it was placed under the Jesuits' 
direction again in 1848, and it continues its work 
of salvation after the many critical periods through 
which it has had to pass during the course of its 
long existence. On 3 Feb., 1907, it celebrated the 
250th anniversary of its foundation. A brochure 
of 126 pages in octavo with illustrations, published 
on that occasion, gives a history of this Sodality 
and a detailed account of its jubilee celebrations. 



118 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

The Hurons 

The wonders worked by the Sodality among the 
conquerors of Canada were repeated among the 
Christian Hurons who, driven from their country, 
had come in 1650 to place their faith and their 
lives under the protection of the French of Quebec. 
They settled on the Isle d'Orleans, 2 leagues from 
the city, and formed there a very flourishing Chris- 
tian parish under the direction of Father Chau- 
monot. 

The great missionary established a Sodality 
among them. Nothing is more edifying than the 
details of it that are given in a Relation, dated 
1653. 

"What helped me most to awaken a spirit of 
fervor in this Huron colony," he writes, "was the 
ardor they developed last year to honor the Blessed 
Virgin. In order to inflame their devotion the 
more, a Sodality was erected in their midst into 
which only those men and women were admitted 
who led exemplary lives and rendered themselves 
worthy of reception by their virtues. At first it 
was composed of only ten or twelve members, who 
redoubled their fervor when they saw themselves 
chosen in preference to others. They desired to be 
faithful to the honor of bearing that beautiful title 
of 'Servants of Mary.' A large number of those 
who had not been chosen, strove to become worthy 
of the honor. They went humbly to the missionary 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 119 

asking him what there was to be criticized in their 
conduct, because they wished to amend their lives 
and to become Children of Mary. Each one was 
told his faults: one that he was careless about the 
public prayers; another that he did not take pains 
enough to put the spirit of God in his family; one 
woman that she lost her temper too easily ; another 
that she was slanderous and that she set families 
at variance by her tales. 

"Soon most of them were seen to change so much 
in their conduct that every month a great many 
had to be received. Their reception filled them 
with joy, for they were convinced that to be a 
worthy Child of Mary was to be assured of one's 
salvation. 

"Sundays and holidays they assemble in the 
early morning. Instead of the Office of the Blessed 
Virgin, which they cannot recite, they say five de- 
cades of the Rosary in two choirs, the men on one 
side, the women on the other. The women are the 
more numerous and I can truthfully say that 
among the Indians, as in the rest of the world, 
they are always the devout sex. 

"Their meetings last nearly an hour, because 
after each decade they stop and the missionary 
gives them a short instruction. During the Priest's 
absence, it is the Prefect of the Sodality who 
speaks. The Sodalists have chosen him themselves 
and have chosen well, for he is a man of extraordi- 
nary worth and full of ardent zeal. 



120 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

"After the first decade, he exhorts them to pray 
to God with attention and to remember that the 
Blessed Virgin sees them. After the second, he 
tells them that true devotion to the Blessed Virgin 
means to have a great horror of sin and that this 
should be one of the characteristics by which a 
Child of Mary is known. Another time he men- 
tions that it is a great pleasure to Our Lady to 
see that they do not forget her on leaving the 
Chapel and to know that they love to repeat from 
the depths of their hearts: 'Most Blessed Virgin, 
I desire to serve thee/ Or again the preacher will 
say: 'My brethren, it is when we are tempted, 
that the Blessed Virgin recognizes those who truly 
have respect and love for her. We shall say to 
her: 'Most Blessed Virgin, I love Thy Son Jesus 
more than the pleasure that tempts me.' If the 
temptation continues, let us persevere in the same 
prayer. 'Whosoever loves Jesus does not love sin.' 

"Then comes Holy Mass, during which the sav- 
ages sing the Gloria, Credo and Pater in the Huron 
tongue to the Church chant. There are always a 
certain number who receive Holy Communion with 
a devotion that makes us realize that Jesus is the 
God of the Indians as well as our God. 

"About noon, they reassemble for a sermon and 
the recitation of five more decades of the Rosary, 
which is done as in the morning, but with the in- 
sertion at each decade of a Church hymn (instead 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 121 

of an instruction) , a practice which never fails to 
excite their devotion. 

"In the evening, they have a third meeting for 
Benediction, when they sing the Litany of the Holy 
Name or the Blessed Virgin or a few Huron hymns 
in honor of the Blessed Sacrament." 

The great ambition of the Sodalists was to be 
irreproachable in their behavior and it was in this 
that God blessed them. A woman or a girl was 
practically safe from temptation if she had been 
able to get into the Sodality. A profligate would 
not dare to tempt her. Indeed, when one thinks of 
the license in all things which they had enjoyed for 
so long a time in their savage life, it was delight- 
ful, we are told, to see the delicacy and purity of 
their consciences. The fear of God had been 
stronger in their hearts than the temptations of the 
most inveterate passions. One woman gave the 
following splendid example of forgiveness of in- 
juries, one of the characteristics of the love of God. 
She saw her son covered with blood flowing from 
the serious wounds which another woman, who had 
flown into a passion, had inflicted on him. The 
mother was deeply moved and in tears she sought 
the missionary. "Please," she begged him, "come 
with me to the Chapel of Our Lady. My heart 
would like to be wicked, but you teach us that the 
Blessed Virgin loves only gentleness, and that she 
saw her son sacrificed, that she even wept, but 
while her tears spoke to God as well as her heart, 



122 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

she still forgave her enemies. I also weep over the 
injury done to my son, but I wish my tears to re- 
semble those of Mary under the Cross and there- 
fore I pardon the woman with all my heart." 

On coming out of the Chapel, they met an aunt 
of the wounded child, who, having heard what had 
happened, was hastening with help to take venge- 
ance on the culprit. "Why, my sister/' the mother 
said to her, "how then do you forget that you are 
a child of Our Lady and that the revenge of a good 
Christian is to forgive injuries? Go to the Father 
and let him heal your spirit." The remedy was 
applied without trouble and obtained the effect. 

Another mother saw her child, whom she dearly 
loved, dying. This was her prayer: "Holy Vir- 
gin, formerly I was inconsolable when one of my 
dear ones died, but since I have become your child 
and know that to please you I must do what God 
wishes, I have no need of any other consolation 
than to remember you are my mother, and that I 
will be your daughter, if only I tell Jesus I find 
everything right which he has done." 

The grace which the good Indian Sodalists asked 
for above all others was the one which the Blessed 
Virgin bestowed on many, that of final persever- 
ance. 

Let us cite, as an example, a woman some 30 
years old. As soon as she felt herself attacked by 
sickness, she entered the Chapel of Our Lady, went 
to Confession, heard Mass kneeling and received 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 123 

Holy Communion. On leaving, she said: "I am 
completely exhausted, but since I must die, I want 
to die honoring the Blessed Virgin and reciting 
my Rosary, for this prayer seems sweeter and more 
lovable to me than all others." When the mis- 
sionary used to question her about her illness, she 
said to him: "Father, do not trouble yourself 
about this feeble body, which soon must rot, but 
speak to me of God: that is the one thing which 
consoles me." Her mother was sick at the same 
time and near her the girl encouraged the mother 
to endure with love the sufferings of her sickness 
and to await the moment of death with joy. The 
mother bore witness that, day and night, her 
daughter never ceased praying and that one day, 
after she had been heard repeating many times: 
"Jesus, have mercy on me, lead me to Thy Para- 
dise," she called out suddenly: "Here comes Jesus, 
he has had mercy on me!" It was with these senti- 
ments that she breathed her last. 

Another death, that of a young man 36 years 
old, named Armand, was no less edifying. During 
the 17 years which had elapsed since his Baptism, 
he had shown the greatest fidelity to his Baptismal 
promises, but after the establishment of the So- 
dality he had redoubled his fervor. Every day he 
heard 2 Masses, even in midwinter, no matter how 
rigorous the cold was. Kneeling on the ground 
with hands clasped, he assisted at the Holy Sacri- 
fice with touching devotion. After his prayers, he 



124 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

went to work in his field and when he took a mo- 
ment's rest, it was to say the beads, often five or 
six times a day. Falling sick, he asked to be taken 
to the hospital to be nursed by "the Holy Daugh- 
ters," as the Hurons call the nuns. His illness 
seemed slight at first, but on the fourth day he felt 
a violent pain in his head, and so asked for the 
Huron missionary. "My brother," he said, "you 
must prepare me for death. Hear my Confession, 
because I am quite sure the moment is close at 
hand. Yes, I have faith, and Jesus, Who sees my 
heart, knows well that I am sorry not to have 
served Him more faithfully. He has given me 
many graces, but this is the greatest, to see myself 
dying a Christian. I do not regret life, I do not 
fear death; for Jesus will have mercy on me." 
Just as he finished speaking, the violence of the 
pain made him lose consciousness, but in his de- 
lirium he spoke only of God and continued thus 
till his death, which was nigh. 

A memorable circumstance for this little mission 
gave several good Sodalists the opportunity to dis- 
play their virtue. It was in 1656. On 20 May, 
the Iroquois, always the mortal enemies of the 
Hurons, came to attack them even as far as the 
retreat they had found in the midst of the French 
colony. The enemy surprised them when they 
were working in the fields and after they had mas- 
sacred several Hurons, they took 71 prisoners. 
Among the captives, there were eleven Sodalists; 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 125 

the Prefect himself was of the number. He was 
called John Pachonk and was distinguished as the 
most fervent of the band. He was far from giving 
way in captivity and proving false in the midst of 
tortures. Instead of singing his feats of valor, as 
was customary, he chose as a subject for his songs 
what he had most in his heart. "Do not pity me," 
he kept saying, "do not think me unfortunate. I 
shall be happy in Heaven. I am not afraid of the 
flames which my blood is able to extinguish. I 
only fear the fire of Hell, which shall never die 
out. This life is nothing to me ; my thoughts carry 
me to Heaven." He consoled the other captives 
and encouraged them in their sufferings. As for 
himself, burned in all parts of his body with fiery 
red axes and with burning brands, he did not utter 
a single cry or make one complaint. He prayed to 
God in the midst of the flames and said boldly 
that a glance towards Heaven with the ejaculation 
"Jesus have mercy on me!" relieved him in his 
pains and obtained for him an increase of strength 
and courage. 

On the return march to their own country with 
their prisoners, the Iroquois stopped some time a 
half league from Three Rivers, 90 miles from Que- 
bec. As they were not then at war with the 
French, they permitted the missionaries of this 
post to visit the prisoners. One of the Fathers 
wrote after the visit: "In truth, God hath done 
all things well. His judgments are astonishing. I 



126 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

have seen the flower of the Huron Sodality led 
captive with a quantity of others, whose devotion 
would be accounted extraordinary even in convents. 
May He be forever blessed, because He hath done 
all things well! One may well imagine how it 
affected me, because of the great affection I have 
for this poor nation. I had the pleasure of visiting 
them three times in the Iroquois camp. I heard 
all their Confessions, after having made them pray 
to God. Assuredly, faith reigns in their hearts. 
Never have they shown deeper sentiments of de- 
votion nor more courage than they did on this oc- 
casion in the presence of all the Iroquois, who did 
not show any aversion to prayer. Even when I 
profited several times of an opportunity to say a 
little word about Heaven and Hell in the latters' 
presence, they always listened to me with the most 
profound respect. I found among these captives 
a young woman 18 years of age who had been bap- 
tized by Father de Brebeuf. Truly I never saw 
anything more innocent. A cloistered nun could 
not have preserved her soul in a higher degree of 
piety." 

A Relation of 1657 gives other details about this 
Huron Sodality. It numbered then 50 members, 
who vied with each other in zeal and fervor. Proof 
of this was particularly given during an epidemic 
which spread through the village. The Sodalists 
were eager to visit and nurse the sick and when 
many of them also had been attacked by the sick- 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 127 

ness, they showed in their sufferings the piety 
which they had so much recommended to others. 

There is nothing more touching than the ex- 
change of sympathetic acts between the Gentle- 
men's Sodality established in the Jesuit Professed 
House in Paris and Father Chaumonot's Sodality. 

Touched by the virtue and zeal of the Huron So- 
dalists, these gentlemen had sent them a charitable 
donation. The good neophytes desired to thank 
their benefactors and to give them a token of their 
gratitude which should at the same time show 
their devotion to the most Blessed Virgin. In 1664, 
the Indians sent them, in consequence, a wampum 
necklace to be offered to Our Lady in the Sodality 
Chapel. It bore the following inscription in black 
letters on white ground: "Ave Maria gratia 
plena." 

A little prayer in their native language accom- 
panied the modest gift. It read. "Receive, O 
Lady of Heaven, this present which the flower of 
thy Huron servants offer thee. It is a necklace, 
full of mysteries, composed of our finest pearls. It 
is vivified and enriched by the salutation which 
the Angel Gabriel addressed to thee long ago. We 
have nothing more precious in our hands or holier 
in our hearts to present to thee and to win Heaven 
by thy mediation." 

They also dictated to Father Chaumonot a letter 
of the most charming simplicity for the gentlemen 
of the Parisian Sodality. It was written on birch 



128 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

bark. The holy missionary enclosed with the note 
the following translation: 

"Brethren, we honor you without disguise. It 
is only a year since our minds have been enlight- 
ened and we have thought of honoring Mary the 
Mother of Jesus. It was then we were told that 
in all parts of the world, assemblies of pious souls 
met to cry to her from the depths of their hearts: 
'Yes, Mother of Jesus, thou seest my heart and 
thou knowest that it is not false when it says to 
thee: "Mary, I desire to honor thee." ' 

"We are told that at Paris, where you are re- 
spected by all men, it is a pleasure to see you; 
that you use all your talents to honor the Blessed 
Virgin. You have preceded us and we wish to 
follow you. 

"The Mother of Jesus, who has regard for the 
poor, has prompted you not to despise them. For 
several years you have sent us rich presents. We 
met together and we said: 'What shall we send to 
these great servants of the Blessed Virgin?' We 
said: 'They have no need of us in any way, for 
they are rich, but they love the Mother of Jesus; 
let us send them a necklace of our porcelain on 
which is written the salutation that the Angel from 
Heaven brought to the Holy Virgin.' We have re- 
cited the five decades of the Rosary as many times 
in the space of two moons as there are beads in the 
necklace; one bead of black porcelain is worth two 
white ones. Present this necklace to her and tell 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 129 

her that we desire her to be honored as much as 
you desire it, but we have not as much ability as 
you have with which to serve God. 

"A farmer is happy when he sees all the ears of 
corn in his field quite ripe. It grieves him to see a 
few unripe ones when the harvest time comes. 
The Virgin whom you honor with all your hearts 
looks on you indeed as the ears of her field which 
are ripe for heaven. She considers us, however, 
who have not yet the spirit and are only beginning 
to serve her, as the unripe ears. This saddens her. 
Since you love her, ask Jesus to make the field of 
the Blessed Virgin ripe as it ought to be for 
Heaven, so that she may be happy. 

"Pray for us when you say your beads. We 
shall pray for you when saying ours. We are 
brothers, since the Mother of Jesus is our Mother 
as well as yours. She loves us and we wish to love 
her. 

"This is what we have begged Hechon S6 to write 
to you. 

"Your brethren, James Oachon, Prefect, Louis 
Taieron, Joseph Sondouskon, Assistants, honor you 
and unaffectedly greet you." 

The letter bore the following address: "To the 
gentlemen of the Sodality of Our Lady in the Pro- 
fessed House of the Society of Jesus at Paris from 
the Huron Christians of the Sodality of Our Lady." 

36 The Indian name for Father Chaumonot, which he in- 
herited from Father de Brebeuf. 



130 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 



Sodalities in Turkey 

At the commencement of the 17th century, the 
Jesuits installed at St. Benedict of Galata (Con- 
stantinople) founded, in November, 1609, a So- 
dality of Our Lady under the auspices of M. de 
Germiny, the French Ambassador. His successor, 
M. de Gontaut-Biron, Baron de Salignac, consid- 
ered it an honor to join the Sodality. "This am- 
bassador, being naturally well disposed and de- 
voutly inclined," writes Father de Canillac, the 
Superior, on 30 October, 1610, "spoke of the work 
to a few of his intimate friends. His dragomans 
and several other members of his household en- 
tered together with him." 

The meetings were held every Saturday in a 
Chapel which the Ambassador had had painted and 
decorated; the principal feast of the Sodality, the 
Immaculate Conception, was celebrated therein 
with great solemnity in the presence of the leading 
men of the French colony. Similar Sodalities were 
founded about the same time in the principal Cath- 
olic centers of the Levant, at Smyrna, Salonica, 
Chios, Santor, Naxos, etc. 

At Smyrna, especially, the Sodality worked won- 
ders among the French merchants of the Levant. 
Some idea of what it accomplished may be gleaned 
from the following details which Father Charles 
Boisleve sent to Father Nicolas de Ste. Genevieve, 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 131 

Superior of the Jesuit Missions of Greece, on 24 
April, 1657. 

"Our Sodality of the Immaculate Conception is 
one of the most flourishing Sodalities that we have 
in the Levant. All our French merchants with the 
exception of 4 or 5, consider it a glory and an honor 
to belong to it. 

"There is a common saying among the French at 
Smyrna when some one has done wrong: 'What, 
you are one of Our Lady's Sodalists and you do 
that!' One day one of the merchants told me he 
would rather have thirty poignard thrusts in his 
heart than one mortal sin on his soul, nor does his 
life contradict Jiis words. He fasts three times a 
week and gives to the poor one per cent of what he 
gains. 

"Two of these gentlemen had formed such firm 
resolutions to conquer themselves, that one of them 
falling into sin again, gave half a crown to the 
poor for each relapse; the other vowed to give to 
the poor as many crowns and to fast as many times 
as he fell into sin. I have seen him carrying out 
this resolution and giving 5 crowns at one time to 
the poor. 

"Another Sodalist, having learned that a very 
indecent picture had been brought from Leghorn, 
inquired for how much it might be bought and 
when his Confessor answered that it could be had 
for ten crowns, he at once gave the Priest the sum, 
saying, 'Go and buy the horrid picture, Father, and 



132 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

sacrifice it to the Mother of all purity.' The de- 
sire was carried out, for the painting was burned, 
although an English merchant offered fifty crowns 
for it. 

"Hardly a week passed that some poor slave did 
not experience the generosity of these good serv- 
ants of the Blessed Virgin. They were often told 
that one infidel needed only thirty crowns, another, 
only twenty, to gain his liberty. This touched 
their well formed hearts and all wished to have a 
part in the slave's deliverance. Two hundred 
crowns were collected among these gentlemen to 
deliver a young Candian girl from the danger she 
was incurring of losing, together with her liberty 
and her honor, the precious gift of the Faith. 

"But their charity was particularly revealed 
when there was question of slavery not of the body 
but of the soul. I remember having heard those 
good merchants say that they would rather fail to 
gain six thousand crowns than to miss doing a 
good work of this kind when God gives them the 
opportunity and the means." 

Sodalities in Africa 

The land of Africa, also, saw the rise of fervent- 
Sodalities. The Jesuits established some at San 
Salvador in 1627 and at Loanda in the Congo. 
The Sodality of Our Lady of Victory was particu- 
larly celebrated (1606). The Portuguese soldiers 



THE SODALITY IN VARIOUS PLACES 133 

joined it in large numbers, "for they had re- 
marked," says Du Jarric, "that the most brilliant 
victories which they had gained had been won on 
Feasts of Our Lady. For this reason they are 
wont not to give battle if they can help it, save on 
a festival of Our Lady. Whatever good fortune 
befalls them either in peace or in war, they at- 
tribute it, after God, to the glorious Virgin Mary. 
When they want to go to war, they previously 
make their vows and say their prayers in her 
Church, after having confessed and communicated. 
On their return, as well, they do homage there, 
thanking Our Lord and His Holy Mother for the 
graces they received. They also carry a statue of 
the Blessed Virgin in their camp and honor it most 
devoutly." 



PROMINENT SODALISTS 

God, who destined the Sodalities of His Mother 
for the conversion of a great number of souls, 
wished to surround them with the charm of out- 
ward splendor. The more illustrious the person 
who gives good example, the more attractive the 
example is. 

"At Naples," says Father Doyotte, "the Sodality 
started with the Papal Nuncio, who was followed 
by three Bishops, two Princes of the blood royal, 
the Admiral of the Kingdom, two Dukes and many 
nobles. 

"Do not forget, my son," said the Duke of Po- 
poli on his deathbed, "that I thank the Sodality 
for the little good I have done in my life. I con- 
sider myself happier in having been a Sodalist 
than in having been the Duke of Popoli. A more 
valuable heritage than the Sodality, I cannot be- 
queath you." x 

At Milan, Cardinal Frederick Borromeo, the suc- 
cessor of St. Charles, was a model Sodalist. He 
founded several Sodalities himself. He called the 
Men's Sodality his own and wanted to be head and 
Director of it in person. 

The whole Council of Castile formed itself into 

1 This and the following paragraphs are taken from 
Doyotte, La Congregation de la Tres Sainte Vierge. 

134 



PROMINENT SODALISTS 135 

a Sodality. The Parliaments of Savoy and Franche 
Comte did likewise, as well as those of Rouen, 
Rennes, Aix, Metz, Bordeaux, Grenoble and Dijon. 

The Prince of Vaudemont, son of the Duke of 
Lorraine, was Prefect of the Sodality of Nancy. 
He himself received into it the Prince of Joinville 
and many other gentlemen of the nobility. Francis 
II, Duke of Lorraine, wanted to be inscribed among 
the first members of the Sodality. Charles IV and 
Leopold followed his noble example. Prince 
Charles, Bishop of Verdun, was one of the most 
fervent Sodalists of his city, before entering the 
Society of Jesus, where he died in the odor of 
sanctity. He even attributed the grace of his re- 
ligious vocation to the happiness which he had had 
in belonging to the Sodality. He gave proof of 
this in touching terms shortly before his last ill- 
ness: "Every one passionately desired to hear 
him," says one of his biographers, "on the Feast 
of the Annunciation of Our Lady, which was that 
of the Toulouse Sodality, an association composed 
of the most distinguished people in the town and, 
above all, of the principal members of the Parlia- 
ment. His audience was captivated. As all mani- 
fested an extraordinary satisfaction at the sermon, 
this Father, who was otherwise so very humble, 
admitted that such discourses, good or bad, cost 
him little, for God had given him a great facility 
in praising His Holy Mother. 

"I wish," he continued, "that those who profess 



136 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

to be her good servants in the Sodalities would 
deem themselves honored by this title and that they 
would not renounce it until death. Most amiable 
protectress! I myself, who have served her so 
little, attribute the grace of my vocation in the 
Society of her Son to the good fortune which I had 
to inscribe my name among those of her dear chil- 
dren, the Sodalists." 

When Sigismund III, King of Poland and Swe- 
den, was still only heir apparent, he had insistently 
begged the Sodalists of Braunsberg to admit him 
among them. 2 

Ladislas IV joined to his title of King, that of 
Sodalist of Our Lady. He founded a Sodality 
himself at Warsaw. His brother assumed the name 
of Protector of the Sodality; they took turns at 
being Prefect of it. 

Emmanuel, Duke of Savoy, went to Turin with 
all his children to devote himself to the service of 
the Queen of Heaven. 

3 It is noteworthy that by a very special privilege the 
Sovereign Pontiffs have accorded and extended the favors 
and indulgences of the Sodalities to all Kings, Dukes and 
Counts exercising sovereign power and to their relatives 
to the second degree who ask to be inscribed in Sodalities 
that have been or will be erected in any place whatever or 
in the Primary Sodality, even should these royal person- 
ages be absent when received, provided, however, they 
perform the good works required to gain the favors and 
Indulgences. By the mere fact of being inscribed these 
high personages become Sodalists. 



PROMINENT SODALISTS 137 

In France, Henry of Bourbon entered the Pa- 
risian Sodality, of which Anthony of Bourbon was 
Prefect; the Princes of the blood, Louis de Conde 
and Armand de Conti, twelve other princes, certain 
Marshals and some of the Ministers, were proud 
to wear, together with their crowns and the marks 
of their rank, the pious insignia of Sodalists. 

All the kings of Catholic Spain would have to be 
enumerated as Sodalists. 

Bavaria saw its Dukes and Princes entering the 
Sodality one after the other, together with their 
families. One day, William III presented himself 
with all his suite in the pious meeting, fell on his 
knees before the image of the Mother of God and, 
on the spot, amid general emotion, asked and ob- 
tained the permission to make his act of Consecra- 
tion. Later on, becoming Prefect of the Sodality, 
he received his sons into the Sodalist ranks. 

In 1715, the Sodality witnessed an even more 
touching scene. Duke Joseph Clement, Prince 
Archbishop of Cologne, who had just been ap- 
pointed Prefect of the Sodality, was celebrating 
Holy Mass in the presence of the Sodalists, when 
his five nephews were seen advancing to the altar 
to make their Act of Consecration in his hands. 

The Counts Palatine of Neuburg vied with the 
Dukes of Bavaria in their devotion to Mary. "I 
prefer," one of them used to say, "my title of So- 
dalist to that of Prince of the Holy Empire." 

At the court of William in Munich there lived 



138 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

three Marquises of the House of Baden, all Protes- 
tants. Strange to say, on 7 April, 1585, they sent 
in a written petition to become members of the 
Sodality and, having made their abjuration, were 
admitted on the following first of May by Maxi- 
milian of Bavaria, together with the latter's 
brother Ferdinand. 

In the sanctuary of Altotting in Bavaria are laid 
to rest the body of the celebrated Tilly, who was a 
Sodalist, and the heart of his illustrious Prince, 
Maximilian. On the slab of stone which covers the 
heart, this inscription is to be read: "Here lies the 
heart of Maximilian I; living, it beat for noble 
causes and for the love of the Mother of God. 
Know, passer-by, that even after his death Maxi- 
milian loves Mary with all his heart." 

But it is perhaps the House of Austria — so proud, 
besides, of its love of the most Blessed Sacrament — 
which was the most distinguished of all for its 
devotion to the Blessed Virgin, and for its attach- 
ment to the Sodality. Almost all the Archdukes 
have inscribed their names on its register. 

The Emperor Ferdinand II, the "new Constan- 
tine of the last century," greater for his virtues 
than for his dignity, to multiply the testimonials 
of his devotion to Mary and the proofs of his zeal 
for her Sodalities, would have his name entered 
in all the Sodalities of Austria. He had Mary 
proclaimed Generalissimo, of his Armies. 

But it was not sufficient for this fervent So- 



PROMINENT SODALISTS 139 

dalist of Mary to belong only to the Sodalities of 
his own dominions. Desiring to be a member of 
the Douai Sodality, at that time very famous, he 
caused the following inscription to be written on 
the register: "Ferdinand II, Client of the Blessed 
Virgin." When he was only King of Hungary, 
he entered himself on the register of the Sodality 
with this formula: "In the year 1618, on the 
seventh day of November, Ferdinand, King of 
Hungary and Bohemia, Duke of Austria and So- 
dalist of the Holy Mother of God, to whose con- 
stant protection he recommends himself." 

His son, the inheritor of his piety and his vir- 
tues, seemed even to surpass his father in his de- 
votion to the Sodalities. He wished to inscribe 
his name with his own hand on the Sodality book 
of Louvain, not simply as others do, but with a 
Latin address to Mary, full of devotion and fervor, 
of which this is the translation: "Most August 
Mary, I sincerely and justly declare myself one of 
this company assembled under the invocation of 
thy Name. To thee I confide myself and all who 
belong to me; to thee my wife and children; to 
thee the Roman Empire, as chief of which God 
has chosen me; to thee the lands I have inherited; 
to thee and thy protection, my people and my 
armies, who shall combat only for thee and for thy 
Son. Receive me to be entirely thine, since I live, 
reign and fight solely for thy Son's honor and thine 
own. I shall therefore be thine alone, Mary! 



140 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

All who shall be my subjects shall also be thine. 
To thee belong my possessions and my kingdoms 
and my imperial crown. To thee the nations and 
the forces. Protect them, vanquish through them, 
rule thou in and through them. This is my conse- 
cration and prayer, made out of love and duty to 
thee. The year 1640. Ferdinand." The text is 
arranged as a lapidary inscription. 

In a word, all those who were most illustrious 
in war, in the fine arts, in piety and science, among 
the Princes of the Church and even in the ranks 
of the Popes — the Tassos, the Lambertinis, the 
Fenelons and Bossuets, Lipsius and Rubens, Vis- 
conti and Farnese, Tilly and Turenne, Leopold and 
John of Austria, Emmanuel of Savoy and Sigis- 
mund of Sweden, Kings, Emperors, Nuncios, Cardi- 
nals, Popes, from Urban VIII, Alexander VII, 
Clement IX, Clement X, Innocent XI and Innocent 
XII to Benedict XIV, Pius IX and Leo XIII were 
seen flocking to the Sodalities. To these illustrious 
names many others might be added: Segneri, 
Descartes, Corneille, Bourdalous, Flechier, de Wal- 
lenstein, Don Juan, Grammont, d'Estree, Boufflers, 
Crequi, Seguier, Gretser, Jean Bollandus, Lope de 
Vega, Calderon; and in the last century, the Mar- 
quis of Clermont-Tonnerre, de Luynes, Oliver de la 
Rochefoucauld, Matthew and Eugene de Mont- 
morency, Emery, Genoude, Laurentie, Recamier, 
Lord Clifford, James Cathelineau, Eligagaray, etc. 



PERSECUTION 

Would it be possible to believe that such an in- 
stitution could have detractors? It had them, nev- 
ertheless; it was bound to have them. In the eyes 
of the licentious, the Sodality was the citadel of 
virtue; that it was the daughter, in fact the be- 
loved daughter of the Society of Jesus, was consid- 
ered an unpardonable crime by Parliaments and 
Jansenists. 

Of this war, the intrigues of which were con- 
trived by the basest passions, it is sufficient to re- 
late one incident. 

It was during the first days of that sad 18th 
century, which began in filth and was to end in 
bloodshed. The Jesuits had managed to establish 
Sodalities of soldiers in the midst of the garrison 
towns. Their adversaries accused them of wishing 
to become masters of the army. It was an absurd 
charge, but what is not done under the influence of 
fear or of deplorable weakness? Fearing to irri- 
tate the sectarians, the Regent feigned to take the 
accusation in earnest and sent the matter to the 
Council. The latter pronounced a judgment, for- 
bidding all military meetings presided over by the 
Jesuits. The order was instantly carried out and 
these Sodalities, the fruits of so much labor and 
so full of hope, were broken up. 
141 



142 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

It would seem as if the Jansenists had reason to 
rejoice over their success, but not at all. They 
clamored that it was all hypocrisy. This prompt 
submission, they said, was only a dangerous fraud, 
merely a clever trick to evade the decisions of the 
Government. 

Fortunately, there was one member of the Coun- 
cil, a former pupil of the Jesuit Fathers, who was 
himself enrolled under the banner of the Sodality, 
a famous captain, at that time Minister of War. 
It was Villars. "I hold in my hands," he said, 
"the replies of the general Officers and the Gover- 
nors of forts. All bear testimony that the wishes 
of the King have been strictly fulfilled. As far as 
I am concerned, gentlemen," he added, "I bear 
public witness that as long as I have been at the 
head of the armies, I have never had soldiers bet- 
ter or braver, or more faithful to duty than those 
belonging to the so wrongfully accused Sodalities." 
This single word from the hero of Friedlingen and 
Denain was most effective and the Regent declared 
himself satisfied with the explanations. 

SODALITIES OF SOLDIERS 

In passing, it is interesting to note that the at- 
tempts to found Sodalities for soldiers date back 
to the first years of the Institute of St. Ignatius. 
"In France," says Cretineau-Joly, "from the time 
of Henry II to that of Louis XIV, in Europe from 



PERSECUTION 143 

1547 to 1715, the Jesuits lived beneath the soldiers' 
tent; in the steppes of Poland, in the mountains of 
Bohemia, in the plains of Flanders or on the battle 
fields of France, they had established Sodalities." 

Thus it was that in 1592, a year of disturbances 
and wars, the Jesuits of Louvain were seen or- 
ganizing the young men into a military Sodality, 
called that of the Holy Eucharist. The city was 
about to be besieged and ^ great number of citizens 
had fled; the Jesuits remained to aid in the com- 
mon defense. By their care, the youths of eighteen 
years and over united in an association for the 
purpose of more efficaciously resisting the siege. 
Having made a public profession of the Roman 
Catholic Faith, they pledged themselves by oath 
to defend it to the last drop of their blood. When 
the Blessed Sacrament was carried through the 
streets of the city, an article of their statutes 
obliged them to escort It under arms. 

Informed of the splendid example given by these 
valiant youths, Pope Clement VIII was only too 
glad to open generously in their favor the treas- 
ury of Indulgences. 

There were nowhere better soldiers than these 
military Sodalists. The moment the sentinels from 
the turrets' heights gave the signal of alarm, the 
legion rushed to the ramparts and victoriously de- 
fended them. 

It is, however, a noteworthy fact that Sodalities 
of soldiers seem to have had the privilege of giving 



144 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

offense to the government. At the commencement 
of the 19th century, when men of faith were trying 
to supply the deficiencies caused by the destruction 
of so many great works, Father Roger, with the 
help of Capt. Bertaud du Coin, had the happy 
inspiration to found a military Sodality in Paris, 
in 1821, under the title of Our Lady of Victory. 
At the beginning of the rules were the following 
words: "Some French Christian officers, desiring, 
in these days of irreligion, to revive the noble 
sentiments of so many knights who prided them- 
selves on serving God and their King, have resolved 
to form, under the auspices of Mary, Patroness of 
France, a military and Christian association, to 
strengthen themselves in the principles of Faith 
and in the love of their duties; to cheer and en- 
courage one another; to make Religion loved and 
respected, and to show the world that it is pos- 
sible to be both a soldier and a Christian. The 
Catholic Religion which they profess has less need 
of proofs than of good example. Since the wicked 
combine and conspire to attack this Divine religion 
and to deprive society with it of peace, happiness 
and hope, why should not the good unite to defend 
the religion which is their glory, contributing in 
this way to the support of the throne and the 
prosperity of their country? Therefore, full of 
confidence in the goodness of God, Who has mani- 
fested and every day manifests His great compas- 
sion for France, supported by the powerful pro- 



PERSECUTION 145 

tection of Mary, whom they adopt henceforth as 
their Mother and special Patroness, they consti- 
tute themselves into a Sodality." 

In these chivalrous expressions there was cer- 
tainly nothing which threatened the peace and 
prosperity of France. Already a number of Offi- 
cers of the Royal Guard and of different arms had 
had their names inscribed. Even the upper ranks 
were brilliantly represented by James de Gombau- 
Rasac, Colonel and Governor of the pages of Mon- 
sieur; the Count de Modene, Colonel of staff; 
O'Mahony, Lieutenant Colonel of Cavalry; Durey 
de Noinville, Colonel of staff; Amedee de Cler- 
mont-Tonnerre, Lieutenant Colonel, second Com- 
mander in the staff school; Lieutenant Colonel de 
la Brousse, etc. The association worked wonders 
for the greatest good of the army. The irreligious 
press, however, was not long in setting up a loud 
cry; it scattered its words skilfully: hints of con- 
spiracy, of mystery, of secret plots, things always 
terrifying to the masses. Those in high positions 
deemed it prudent to seem moved; the malevolent 
insinuations finally reached the Dauphin and he, 
without further inquiry, publicly declared that he 
would never receive an officer convicted of being 
a Sodalist. Antagonism, which irritated passions 
would soon have caused to degenerate into bloody 
conflicts, followed. The Officers who were Sodalists 
thought it expedient to discontinue their peaceful 
meetings. 



THE SODALITY'S RESULTS 

Father Binet, in his grand book, the Master- 
piece of God, eloquently answered those who scof- 
fingly and ironically asked: "Well, what miracles 
have been performed in the Sodalities?" 

"The first miracle is that your inconsiderate zeal 
and malicious injuries are borne with patience; and 
that, instead of vengeance being wreaked on you, 
hearty prayers are offered to God on your behalf. 

"The second is that sight has been restored to 
the blind; for several people who had never seen 
the state of their conscience have become men full 
of devotion and of all good will. 

"The third is that a large number of paralytics 
have recovered the use of their limbs. How many 
persons who had not feet to visit the hospitals, nor 
hands to give alms, nor tongues to pray to God 
properly, nor hearts to love their enemies, have 
been cured by Our Lady and now hasten to what- 
ever place there is a good work to be done. 

"The fourth is to see, in a corrupted century like 
ours, so many young men living with such chastity 
that they seem like angels in the furnace of 
Babylon. 

"As for the last miracle, I give you my word 
that several dead have been raised to life, for mil- 
lions of men perhaps have recovered in the So- 

146 



THE SODALITY'S RESULTS 147 

dality of Our Lady Immaculate the Grace of God, 
innocence of life and the peace of a good con- 
science. Satan trembles because he sees issuing 
forth from these Sodalities an immense host of 
God's servants." 

The fruits of salvation produced by the Sodali- 
ties are sufficiently shown in the general outline of 
their history which this book contains. We shall 
dwell on this point no longer. An instance, how- 
ever, may be cited — one evidence among thousands 
— which will undoubtedly be read with interest. 

Justus Lipsius, a man illustrious for his learn- 
ing and still more for his piety, was present every 
Sunday in the Sodality Chapel at Louvain and 
was usually the first to be there. At his death he 
assured Father Leonard Lessius, S.J., that nothing 
gave him more consolation than being a Sodalist 
and that he never would have thought that death 
could be so sweet as he was rinding it. 

"In my insignificance, or to speak more correctly, 
in my nothingness, wretched nobody that I am, and 
even less than nothing by sin, I feel obliged to bear 
witness that I have received in the Sodality of 
which our good Saviour has granted me the honor 
and grace of being a member, blessings that it 
would be difficult for me to explain, and they have 
been the source of all kinds of assistance, greater 
than I can tell. Oh, my Lord and my God, Thou 
knowest it; may all Thy Angels and Saints bless 
Thy divine Providence forever!" 



THE SODALITY'S HOLY ONES 

The most perfect glory, however, of the Sodali- 
ties certainly is the phalanx of God's servants who 
drew from these sources the origin or the growth of 
their sanctity. Limiting the list to those whom the 
Church has recognized as eminently virtuous or 
whom common opinion regards as predestined to 
the honors of the Altar, the following names may 
be mentioned: 

The illustrious Archbishop of Milan, St. Charles 
Borromeo, St. Francis de Sales and St. Alphonsus 
de Liguori, Bishops and Doctors. The reader re- 
members the beautiful tributes the two latter ren- 
dered to the Sodalities. 

St. Stanislaus, St. Aloysius Gonzaga and St. John 
Berchmans, the lovely patrons of youth, flowers 
blooming in the garden of the Sodalities, which 
they filled with the sweet odor of their angelic vir- 
tues. Our Blessed Lady, anxious to adorn the 
eternal groves as soon as possible with these fra- 
grant blossoms, gathered all of them in the spring- 
time of their lives. 

St. Camillus de Lellis, the hero of charity to the 
sick. 

St. Francis Hieronymo, who knew how to 
make his Sodalists powerful cooperators in the 
works of his apostolate. With them he often went 

148 



THE SODALITY'S HOLY ONES 149 

through the streets of Naples, and, assisted by their 
prayers and hymns, preached and converted the 
most hardened sinners, and prepared for the Gen- 
eral Monthly Communion the crowds that thronged 
to hear him; with them again, he made his way 
aboard the galleys, to bring to those employed 
thereon the joys of hope and pardon. 

St. Leonard of Port Maurice, whom the Queen 
of Apostles wondrously endowed with unrivaled 
eloquence, with health proof against the cruelest 
fatigue and with an incomparable power of voice. 
He could be heard easily by audiences of 15,000 
people. He could even address 100,000 men and 
the last rows could follow his discourse. This 
famous son of St. Francis used humbly to say that 
if he had done any good, especially if he had 
avoided evil in his youth, he owed it to the grace 
of having belonged to the Sodality of Father Gra- 
vita at Rome. 

St. John Baptist de Rossi, the Vincent de Paul of 
the Eternal City, first a member of the Scaletta, 
later the soul of the Oratory of Caravita. 

St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen, a Sodalist of Frei- 
burg in Breisgau, who was assassinated by the 
heretics in hatred of the faith. 

St. Peter Claver, to whom nearly 300,000 negroes 
owed the grace of Baptism. 

His Director in the spiritual life, St. Alphonsus 
Rodriguez, the great servant of the Immaculate 
Virgin. 



150 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

St. Peter Fourier, the founder of the Congrega- 
tion of the Sisters of Notre Dame, to which he 
wished to give the devotion to Mary as a funda- 
mental basis. "They are," the "Good Father" used 
to say, "of Our Lady. It is Our Lady who has 
conceived, raised, nourished their Congregation. 
Our Lady calls them, assists them, relieves them, 
protects them, helps them to persevere." 

The list of the Blessed who belonged to the So- 
dalities is also a long one. On it are the names of 
John de Britto, who sealed his faith with his blood 
at Madura; of Andrew Bobola, "the robber of 
souls," whose martyrdom was one of the most 
heroic of all mentioned in the annals of the 
Church; of Charles Spinola and Camillus Cos- 
tanzo, the victims of Japanese idolatry ; of Edmund 
Campion, the steadfast defender of the Supre- 
macy of the Holy See; of Grignon de Montfort, 
the founder of the Missionaries of the Holy Ghost 
and of the Daughters of Wisdom; of Anthony Bal- 
dinucci and of Bernardine Realino, whom Pope 
Leo XIII raised not long since to the honors of the 
Altar; of John Eudes, founder of the Congregation 
of Jesus and Mary, called that of the Eudists. 

It is impossible to close this list without naming 
a few other Servants of God, many of whom have 
been honored with the title of Venerable. 

Cardinal de la Rochefoucauld, the reformer of 
the Congregation of St. Genevieve; Cardinal de 
Berulle, who instituted the Oratory of France; 



THE SODALITY'S HOLY ONES 151 

James Olier, founder of the Society of Sulpician 
Fathers; Claude Caraffa, who established the Con- 
gregation called the Pious Workmen; Benigne Joly, 
founder of the nursing Sisters of Our Lady of 
Charity at Dijon; Julian Maunoir, the apostle of 
Brittany ; Peter John Cayron, the disciple and rival 
of St. John Francis Regis; Cardinal Bellarmine, 
one of the most brilliant lights of the Church in 
modern times; Louis La Nuza, whom Sicily, the 
scene of his labors and his miracles, has surnamed 
the Angel, the Saint and the Apostle; Claude de la 
Colombiere, whom Our Lord himself commanded 
to direct Blessed Margaret Mary; James Sales, 
put to death by the Calvinists at Aubenas ; Thomas 
Holland, Prefect of the Sodality of the English 
College of St. Omer, who gave his life in the cause 
of the Faith; Francis Mastrilli, martyred in Japan; 
Isaac Jogues and Claude Gamier, heroes of 
Canada; Mary Joseph Pignatelli, the brilliant link 
between the old and the new Society of Jesus, and 
finally countless others whose names, entered in 
the Catalogues of the Sodalists of Our Lady, are 
no doubt also inscribed in the Book of Life. 



THE SUPPRESSION OF THE JESUITS 

The Suppression of the Society of Jesus struck 
a fatal blow at the Sodalities. 

With the Jesuits there vanished from many souls 
not only the fervor of Christian life, but even the 
simple practice of their religious duties. Thus one 
of the dykes which might have stayed the revolu- 
tionary torrent was swept away. Forty years later, 
when the Abbe de Lamennais set to work to raise 
from its ruins the ancient religious edifice, so la- 
mentably overthrown, he did not hesitate to declare 
this openly: "When in 1762," he writes, "the So- 
dalities were for the most part obliterated with the 
Jesuits who had formed them and had directed them 
with such wisdom, in less than 18 years there was in 
the Capital of France a decrease of one half in the 
number of people who fulfilled their Easter duties. 
About the same time and for the same reason, 
pious practises were seen to fall, little by little, into 
disuse; the daily visits to the Blessed Sacrament, 
family prayers in common, an only too certain 
omen of the destruction of the Faith." 

Two zealous Priests, Anthony Vittene and Sep- 

timius Costanzi, succeeded in saving the Prima 

Primaria Sodality at Rome. The Chapel, the seat 

of the Prima Primaria, remained untouched, even 

152 



THE SUPPRESSION OF THE JESUITS 153 

when the government came to take from the 
Roman College the objects consecrated to Divine 
worship. Elsewhere, with very few exceptions, the 
Sodalities, after having languished for a short while, 
ended by dying out. 

Nevertheless, the Society of Jesus, wounded, but 
not quite dead, was received by the schismatic 
Catherine II, who did not permit the Brief of 
Suppression to take effect in her dominions. The 
new Pope, Pius VI, was not offended, it is said, at 
her action and scarcely 5 years after the sentence 
of death, he authorized the Jesuits of White Rus- 
sia to reopen their novitiate. In 6 Colleges which 
they had founded in this country, the Sodalities 
flourished again, as formerly. 

It was the same at Stonyhurst College, where the 
English Fathers, successively banished from France 
and the Lowlands, at last found refuge in their he- 
retical fatherland. 



The Paris Sodality After 1800 

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the 
first person in France to revive the Sodalities, was 
a former Jesuit, Father John Baptist Delpuits. 
Six young men, some law and others medical 
students, who had escaped the general contagion, 
formed the nucleus: their names were, Regis Buis- 
son, Francis Regnier, Louis Gondret, Joseph Per- 



154 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

dreau, Augustus Period and Charles Frain de la 
Villegontier. 

On 2 February, 1801, Father Delpuits celebrated 
Holy Mass in his parlor, transformed into a Chapel 
for the event. At the Holy Sacrifice, the young 
men, the first fruits of the new Sodality, pro- 
nounced their Act of Consecration to Mary. They 
used the ancient formula, just as it is printed at 
the beginning of the "Libellus Sodalitatis Beatae 
Mariae Virginis," published in 1576 by Father 
Francis Coster, and little by little it became the 
custom for the Sodalists to recite this prayer every 
day together with 15 Aves and 15 Gloria Patris. 
It is the formula still used to-day. 

"Holy Mary, Virgin Mother of God, I, N.N., 
choose thee this day to be my Queen, my Patroness 
and my Advocate, and I firmly purpose never to 
desert thee and never to say or do anything against 
thee and never to permit those who depend on me 
to do anything against thy honor. Receive me, 
then, I pray thee, for thy servant forever; aid me 
in my every action and desert me not at the hour 
of my death. Amen." 

When Pius VII came to Paris to crown Na- 
poleon, Father Delpuits judged it an opportune 
moment to obtain for the nascent work the appro- 
bation and benediction of the Holy Father. Con- 
sequently, he caused a petition to be presented to 
the Pope, the purport of which was as follows: 



THE SUPPRESSION OF THE JESUITS 155 

"Most Holy Father 

"Jean Bourdier Delpuits, a Priest of over sixty 
years of age, formerly a member of the Society of 
Jesus in France, now an honorary Canon of the 
Metropolitan Church of Paris, approved by His 
Eminence the Card. Archbishop to exercise the holy 
ministry in his diocese, prostrate in heart and 
spirit at the feet of Your Holiness, humbly begs 
you graciously to deign for the greater glory of 
God to confirm and approve by your authority and 
benediction the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin, 
instituted in Paris some 5 years ago, as well as 
the other Sodalities conformable to that of Paris, 
which they recognize as their Mother. During 
the two years of their existence, these last men- 
tioned Sodalities have not ceased to edify the 
world by their constant piety. May Your Holiness 
vouchsafe also to grant to me and to my legitimate 
successors, the necessary authorization to allow 
Sodalities to affiliate themselves to the one in Paris 
and to participate in all their entirety in the graces 
granted by the Holy See to the Sodalities so long 
established in the houses of the Society of Jesus, 
Sodalities, the edifying example of which has every- 
where contributed to the advancement of general 
piety in all countries. The pious youths of Paris 
had the joy and consolation of embracing the Feet 
of Your Holiness a few days ago, and you kindly 
deigned, Most Holy Father, to hearken to the ad- 



156 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

dress of the orator chosen to express the wishes of 
his fellow members. We shall never forget the 
paternal affability of Your Holiness; this recollec- 
tion, dear to their hearts, will strengthen the fervor 
of their prayers that God may spare Your Holi- 
ness to His Church for many years to come." 

The Holy Pontiff took great interest in the 
young confraternity and granted it all the graces 
and privileges of the old Sodalities. 

The reader may have remarked the allusion in 
Father Delpuits' petition to a ceremony in which 
his dear Sodalists were permitted to approach the 
Holy Father's person. On 18 Dec, 1804, indeed, 
when Pius VII was visiting the Church of St. Sul- 
pice, it was one of the Sodalists, Maximilian 
Seguier, a descendant of the illustrious family of 
the Chancellor of that name, who had the honor 
to make an address of welcome to the Sovereign 
Pontiff in Latin. Here is the translation: 

"Most Holy Father: In the midst of such a large 
assembly of the faithful, when the Church of 
France manifests on all sides the great joy with 
which Your presence fills her, permit a few youths 
of different stations in life, but whom their religion 
unites to-day at the feet of Your Holiness, to ex- 
press to you the sentiments of respect and venera- 
tion with which they are penetrated. We shall 
say to our sons: We saw this Venerable Pontiff 
leave the Throne of Peter and come to reestablish 
in France those august ceremonies, consecrated by 



THE SUPPRESSION OF THE JESUITS 157 

the faith of our Fathers, which iniquity had for so 
long a time abolished. Henceforth may iniquity 
never come to shelter itself under the charming 
name of philosophy. She has proved false to 
herself and cast far from her the mantle with 
which she once covered herself. To-day, on 
ground sprinkled with the blood of our Martyrs, 
we see incense burning on the Altars of our Saviour 
to offer reparation for the numberless outrages 
religion has suffered in the person of its ministers. 
Let us encourage the earnest desires of a Sovereign 
Pontiff, worthy of all veneration, by complete sub- 
mission. Let us raise the sacred Standard of the 
Cross. Let us embrace the august sign of our 
salvation. May the Divine Goodness vouchsafe 
to reward the paternal charity which animated you, 
Most Holy Father, by according you the sweet sat- 
isfaction of successfully terminating yourself the 
great work which you have so well begun." 

The Pope was particularly touched by this ad- 
dress and answered it in Latin in terms like the 
following, says the Gazette de France: "Nothing 
has been more pleasing to me than these senti- 
ments of religion expressed by young men. I 
pray God to preserve these dispositions in your 
hearts, to make you find in them your felicity even 
in this life and to reward you for them with the 
crown of immortality." 

A contemporary document adds that "the So- 
dalists, by their respectful bearing and large num- 



158 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

bers, were the first to attract the Holy Father's 
attention." 

This, moreover, was not the only occasion that 
the young people consecrated to Mary, were able 
to attract notice by their attitude at once digni- 
fied and recollected. On 26 Oct., 1804, the day of 
the Translation of the Holy Crown of Thorns to 
the Church of Notre Dame, a place had been re- 
served at the ceremonies for the Sodalists. The 
greater number of them approached the Holy 
Table, to the great edification of those present, who 
could not recover from their astonishment. It is 
even said that a worthy Canon, deeply moved at 
the sight, then such an unusual one, leaned over to 
his neighbor, repeating with insistence: "Now, 
where do they come from? But where do they 
come from?" To which the one addressed, just as 
surprised himself, replied: "Really, Father, I could 
not tell you!" 

With the luster of piety many of Father Delpuits' 
Sodalists combined the influence of science — such 
men as Augustine Cauchy and Laennec. 

Cauchy was assuredly one of the most remark- 
able men of the 19th century and his prestige was 
reflected on the Sodalities of Our Lady, of which 
he always gloried in being one of the most faithful 
members. It is amazing to see him at barely six- 
teen years of age, forcing the doors of the Poly- 
technic School, entering with highest honors the 
School of Bridges and Roads, and leaving likewise 



THE SUPPRESSION OF THE JESUITS 159 

with the best mark; then becoming member of the 
Academy of Science at 25, because of his fame as 
a scientific discoverer. At the time when so many- 
have scarcely finished their studies, he was an emi- 
nent Professor at the Polytechnic Institute, the 
Sorbonne and the College of France. During his 
entire career, he published over 500 memoirs which 
were admired greatly by the learned. Finally, he 
was received with flattering eagerness into the 
bosom of 18 Academies, which considered them- 
selves honored in counting him among their mem- 
bers. 

But this illustrious mathematician aspired to 
many other titles of glory. Not content merely to 
comply with the precepts, he also tried to put 
the counsels into practice. As he had protected 
the convictions of his youth in the ranks of the 
Sodality, he desired in his manhood years to take 
a large part in the Christian works of his time. 
He was a courageous defender of the Jesuits, who 
were attacked by dishonesty. There was not a 
single enterprise begun during 50 years by the 
spirit of Catholic Charity that was unknown to 
him. The work of St. Francis Regis and the So- 
ciety of St. Vincent de Paul, numbered him among 
their most assiduous members. The observance 
of Sunday and the reform of the penitentiary regu- 
lations found in him an indefatigable apostle. He 
lavished his care on the little Savoyards cast with- 
out means of subsistence on the streets of Paris, 



160 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

whom he, as a Socialist, had often instructed. Al- 
though he was one of the founders of the Work 
of Schools in the Orient, he did not forget the needs 
of the young generation 'raised about him; his last 
thought was for those excellent Christian Brothers 
whom he wished to have summoned to Sceaux, the 
little town where he lived and where he died on 22 
May, 1857, assisted in his last moments by the 
Fathers of the Society of Jesus, his directors, his 
friends and his grateful admirers. 

When Father de Ravignan heard of his death, he 
did not hesitate to say: "Every one is convinced 
that this saintly man went straight to Heaven. 
That good Mr. Cauchy! he must have entered 
Heaven as he used to enter our rooms, without 
knocking at the door!" 

The happy death of this fervent Sodalist of Mary 
was only the worthy crowning of an eminently 
Christian life. At the time of his First Com- 
munion, young Cauchy had drawn up a sort of 
rule of life where lines like the following are read 
with admiration, as they give evidence of an early 
and profound humility. "I shall never boast of 
the little science I have learned through my fa- 
ther's care, keeping before my mind, first, that if 
I know anything at all, it is solely because of the 
charge my father has taken of me; secondly, that 
human sciences are as nothing compared to the 
science of salvation, that it would profit me noth- 



THE SUPPRESSION OF THE JESUITS 161 

ing to know all the former, if I did not possess the 
latter." 

At the Polytechnic School, he recited his morn- 
ing and night prayers, kneeling at the foot of his 
bed. At Cherbourg, where as engineer, he took 
part in the port works, he attended with exem- 
plary regularity the services of his parish church. 

To his mother, who was anxious about the dan- 
gers of the skeptical center in which he was sta- 
tioned, he wrote: "They say that devotion will 
turn my brain. Who are they that say this? It is 
not those who have much religion. The religious- 
minded have only mentioned the subject to en- 
courage me to continue my line of conduct and all 
that has been reported to me on that score does 
not show that they have any fault to find with 
me." 

Later on, when addressing the unbelievers, he 
made the following typical statement: "I have 
devoted myself to the study of human sciences, 
particularly to those which are called the exact 
sciences, and I have more and more realized the 
truth of those words of Bacon that if a little 
science makes us unbelievers, much philosophy 
leads us back to be Christians. I have seen that 
all attacks directed against Revelation have re- 
sulted in supplying new proofs of its truth!" 

And to his colleagues in instruction, more or less 
tainted by atheism, he might have dedicated cer- 
tain of his verses — for he was a poet at times — 



162 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

such as the following, in which he proclaims very 
loudly the glory of the Creator. This is a rough 
translation of them: 

"While with fury others war together and for 
an idle whim stain with blood that ground which 
in an instant will vanish from their sight, far 
happier is the astronomer who has gazed at the 
Heavens. There are read the glory and the mag- 
nificence of that God, Whose power all the Uni- 
verse attests. There also calm and peace are re- 
flected. There reigns with undivided sway and 
everlasting triumph He Who described the courses 
of the suns, Who, out of the night of chaos, made 
light burst forth, kindled the torch of day, trans- 
formed vile dust into that man, the fruit, the ob- 
ject of such love. But at such sights my spirit is 
confused. I hold my peace and I adore Him Whose 
Glorious Name is read in such sweet strokes on the 
fires of Dawn and the canopy of the skies." 

When Augustine Cauchy was enrolled in the So- 
dality by Father Delpuits on 3 April, 1808, Laen- 
nec, another illustrious Sodalist, had been a mem- 
ber of it for already 5 years. A native of Catholic 
Brittany, he set his heart on returning there to 
sleep his last sleep, leaving to posterity the memory 
of one of the most learned of men in medical sci- 
ences and to his contemporaries the example of a 
Catholic always faithful to his Religion. 

Side by side with these renowned Sodalists, how 
many others, though less well-known, were the glory 



THE SUPPRESSION OF THE JESUITS 163 

of the Sodality and the consolation of its pious 
Director ! 

Not long ago, the exquisite pen of Mgr. Baunard, 
former Rector of the Catholic University of Lille, 
drew a few sketches, the principal strokes of which 
we take pleasure in retracing. 

Regis Buisson, a native of Lyons, first Prefect 
of the little company, was connected with the work 
of his celebrated cousin, Dr. Bichat, whose writ- 
ings he published. Learned himself, already an 
associate member of the Medical Society, he was 
destined, exhausted by labor, to die soon after- 
wards at 28 years of age, with the benediction of 
his father, who said to him: "Good-by, dear child. 
May God bless you, as I bless you. Au revoir." 

Charles Frain de la Villegontier, a native of 
Vendome, had, out of devotion, become volunteer 
physician of the hospitals for the wounded and 
of the prisons which the proconsols of the Re- 
public were filling, until at the age of 24, he, in 
turn, fell, prostrated by a disease contracted at 
their bedside. 

Louis Fizeau, an energetic Breton, one day an 
artillery man in the Vendean army, was, the next 
day, the generous healer of all physical and moral 
infirmities in Paris. 

Charles Savary des Brulons was a staunch 
Catholic. It is said that once when, as the winner 
of the first prize in the examination in Medicine, 
in 1800, he was invited to dine with the Minister 



164 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

Quinette, he would not touch a single meat course 
of the official dinner given in his honor. Four 
years later, this valiant man expired while nurs- 
ing the wounded of Val-de-Grace. 

After the School of Medicine, the Polytechnic 
School sends its contingent of intrepid Sodalists 
to Father Delpuits. 

There is Paul Emile Tesseyre, from Dauphiny, 
future apostle among the clergy, already an apostle 
in the school, "where," he writes, "he has found 
and enrolled 20 pupils who think like himself." 

There is John Duplessis, a fugitive from the 
massacres of the Reign of Terror, ready for all 
good works. There is Nicolas Emery who found 
again in the Sodality the God Whom, alas! he had 
forgotten since his First Communion, which he 
made in a garret. Then Veillet and Bailleul who, 
in their historical compositions at school demolish 
the old Voltairian theses of their unhappy masters 
against the Popes and the Church. Bailleul died 
young ; Veillet, as chief civil engineer, was to found 
in Paris the work of Young Prisoners. Another, 
Charles de Breteuil, Auditor of the Council of 
State, goes off to raise up the wounded on the battle 
field of Wagram. Still another, Augustus d'Ha- 
ranguiers de Quincerot, a lawyer, devoted himself 
to the ungrateful task of defending young peasants 
and workingmen against the tyrannical exactions 
of the imperial conscription. 

Such were the young men of intelligence and 



THE SUPPRESSION OF THE JESUITS 165 

heart who prepared for France a new race of Chris- 
tians, capable of doing honor to that great name, 
as Father Delpuits congratulates them, saying 
with a certain family pride: "Of ourselves we are 
nothing, my dear sons, as you see. But it must 
not be said that Catholics are more stupid than 
other people." 

Mgr. Baunard adds that the aristocracy too had 
come to the Sodality. It had come even in the 
days of the Empire, when certainly the title of 
Sodalist was not a claim for official favors, and it 
is just to say that the nobility brought to the So- 
dality merits superior to high birth. 

At the head of the list of aristocratic Sodalists, 
the Duke de Montmorency-Laval may be named, 
a soldier of American Independence, against whom 
we may hope that the French democracy will not 
allege as a crime the famous meeting on the night 
of Aug. 4th, during which he, the first gentleman of 
France, came to lay the sacrifice of his noble titles 
on the altar of his country. 

Another, Charles Augustus de Forbin-Janson, the 
future Bishop of Nancy, had at that time just 
been made Auditor of the Council of State by Na- 
poleon. But nobler ambitions than this stirred 
his heart. "Already," relates Lacordaire, "Janson 
could not contain himself in Paris. He cast long- 
ing glances at the distant lands where oppressed 
Christianity demands at all times the words and 
blood of apostles. He wandered in spirit from 



166 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

America to China, from China to the banks of the 
Ganges and Euphrates. The hand of God had 
laid hold of him and was leading him from as- 
piration to aspiration across the deserted spots of 
earth to find a place where his devotion might not 
be hampered." 

The Sodalists, however, did not content them- 
selves with edifying others by their piety and con- 
soling them by their charity. They were able, 
when the opportunity presented itself, to render 
services to the Church which were full of danger. 
When Napoleon was excommunicated, it was six 
Sodalists, who at the risk of provoking against 
themselves the imperial wrath, clandestinely 
brought to Paris the Pontifical Bull. The docu- 
ment, secretly received at Lyons by one of them, 
was translated there and the copy was conveyed 
to Paris by the Marquis Eugene de Montmorency, 
who, to escape the police, had concealed it in his 
boots. The following week, however, three of 
these courageous youths, of whom Alexius de 
Noailles was one, were arrested and shortly after- 
wards an imperial decree suppressed "all establish- 
ments known under the name of Sodalities of the 
Blessed Virgin." 

The despot intended this edict to be the death 
of Father Delpuits' work; but it produced only a 
sleep. The Sodality awoke in 1812 under the di- 
rection of Father Legris-Duval, who then inherited 
the mission of the venerable Religious. 



THE SUPPRESSION OF THE JESUITS 167 

The year before, in fact, on the Octave of the 
Immaculate Conception, 15 Dec, 1811, the restorer 
of the Sodalities of the Blessed Virgin in France 
had peacefully breathed his last. The tombstone 
over his remains bore these two significant in- 
scriptions: 

"Rev. H. B. Delpuits, Priest of the Society of Jesus 

trained by word and example 

innumerable devoted servants of God 

and His Virgin Mother" 

and beneath: 

"Therefore, my children, hearken to your Fa- 
ther: Serve the Lord in truth and seek to do what 
is pleasing to him" 

The memory of this man of God remained alive 
during the first generations of the 19th century, 
and 30 years after his death, Lacordaire was fond 
of calling it up beneath the arches of Notre Dame. 
"I love to mention him," he said in one of his dis- 
courses. "Others have acquired greater glory in 
their relations with the youth of France; none has 
merited more than he." For according to the 
praise given him by Father de Retz, a former So- 
dalist, who died at Rome in the office of Auditor 
of the Rota: "Father Delpuits made saints of 
his young men." 

Father Legris-Duval kept the precious heritage 
of Father Delpuits until 1814, when he handed it 
over to Father Ronsin. 



168 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

The latter guarded it for 15 years with a devo- 
tion which won him the gratitude of all true Catho- 
lics, and with a success which drew on him the 
jealous anger of the liberals. Indeed, numerous 
and important recruits came to the Sodality. 
From 1820 to 1826, the registers of the Associa- 
tion bear the names of 36 Archbishops and Bishops, 
one Apostolic Delegate, Mgr. Falconieri, and two 
Nuncios, Mgr. Macchi and Mgr. Lambruschini. 
Other Sodalists, then simply seminarists or stu- 
dents, became famous later, such as Mgrs. de 
Rohan, Mathieu, de Mazenot, Gerbet, Sibour, 
Dumoulin-Borie, etc. Laymen, too, were worthily 
represented by MacCarthy, La Bouillerie, Cler- 
mont-Tonnerre and Recamier. 

The Parisian Sodality was the most conspicuous, 
but it was not the only one. Former Jesuits 
who had returned to France after the Terror 
formed similar reunions in several cities. That of 
Lyons, due to the initiative of a truly apostolic 
Priest, Father Roger, included three sections: young 
men, married men of leisure, workingmen. This 
work did too much good not to give offense to the 
public authorities of the period. The founder was 
obliged to go away in 1808. He did not return 
to resume the direction of his Sodality until 30 
years later, when he consecrated to it the rest of a 
life already wasted by age and labor. 



SODALITIES OF WOMEN BEFORE 1824 

It was in 1824 that Leo XII reinstated the So- 
ciety of Jesus in all its former rights over the So- 
dalities. The work was about to enter upon a new 
field. Until then the Sodalities had only been es- 
tablished in the houses of the Society of Jesus or 
annexed oratories; furthermore, they comprised 
only men, to the almost entire exclusion of women. 

During the first two centuries of the existence 
of the Sodalities, a few Sodalities of women are 
mentioned, it is true, established in Syracuse, Quito, 
Fribourg, Treves, in several cities of France and 
in Rome. But these were always only exceptions. 
"Many ladies," says Sacchini, "in more than one 
place and time, strove to obtain permission to come 
together in associations of this kind; but this was 
not at all approved." A few members of the high- 
est nobility were, however, admitted by special 
privilege. Among others were the Empress of 
Austria in 1581, and her daughter the Queen of 
France, wife of Charles IX; then, at a later date, 
the Princess Eleanor, Empress in 1690. 

The Sodalities of women which existed, however, 
were not inferior to those of men in point of fervor. 
This may be judged, among many other examples, 
from a few extracts from the rules of the Sodality 
of Christian Mothers under the title of the Purifi- 
169 



170 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

cation, formed in 1705 by Father John Croiset, S.J., 
the illustrious apostle of the Sacred Heart, then 
Superior of the Holy Cross House in Marseilles. 

"Pious Practices: Every day, a half hour's 
meditation, attendance at Holy Mass, the recita- 
tion of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin, the 
recitation of the beads, a visit to the Blessed Sac- 
rament in the evening with another half hour's 
meditation, a quarter of an hour's spiritual reading 
and the practise of the Particular Examination of 
Conscience. These are the daily practises to unite 
the soul to God. 

"The monthly retreat, devotion to the Holy 
Patron received from the president at the close 
of the exercises of the last Saturday of every 
month, the reception of the Sacraments of Penance 
and the Holy Eucharist on all the feasts of Our 
Lord and the Blessed Virgin, participation in the 
General Communion on the first Saturday of the 
month or on a feast of the Mother of God, the 
yearly retreat, placed under the patronage of St. 
Joseph, from Ascension Day to the Saturday before 
Pentecost, with exposition of the Blessed Sacra- 
ment during the four exercises of every day and an 
Act of Reparation to the most Blessed Virgin on 
the Feast of the Presentation in the Temple, are 
acts likewise very capable of preserving souls in 
piety and fervor in the service of God. 

"2. Duties recommended to Sodalists: Theaters, 
balls, gambling and all unchristian entertainments 



SODALITIES OF WOMEN BEFORE 1824 171 

are absolutely forbidden to all the ladies of the 
Sodality. The early Christians were rebuked for 
not assisting at the shows and other profane as- 
semblies. All Sodalists, without exception, ought 
to endure the same reproach, which will be their 
most glorious title of honor. Love of home, the 
avoidance of useless visits, simplicity in dress, sub- 
mission to the Divine Will in trials, respect and 
kindness towards their husbands, the Christian 
education of their children, especially of their 
daughters, in whom they shall inculcate a contempt 
for the world, modesty and the practise of virtue, 
all these exercises are strongly enjoined on them, 
in addition to the care of their servants' souls and 
the apostleship of good example. 

"They should love all their fellow Sodalists, re- 
spect the officers — who alone should enjoy the 
privilege of precedence — visit the sick Sodalists and 
pray for their deceased fellow members by of- 
fering one Communion, by having Mass said for 
each and by assisting every Monday of the year 
at the Mass celebrated for the Dead in the Chapel 
of the Sodality. 

"3. Works of Mercy: Every Saturday, four 
ladies are appointed to accompany the Blessed 
Sacrament Which is brought to the sick; eight 
ladies to visit the poor in the four hospitals of the 
city, and two to visit the sick poor of each parish. 
Every six months, on the Feast of All Saints and 
at Easter, four ladies shall be named to visit at 



172 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

least once a week the poor women kept in prison. 
All these visits of Charity ought to be made with 
the intention of honoring Jesus Christ in the per- 
son of the poor, and of making up for lost time 
and useless visits." 



DEVELOPMENT OF SODALITIES AFTER 
1824 

But the expansion of the Prima Primaria So- 
dality became marvelous when a Pontifical Re- 
script, dated 7 March, 1825, opened its doors to 
all the faithful and gave to the General of the 
Society of Jesus full power to aggregate to the 
Roman Sodality as to a central archconfraternity 
all other Sodalities of men, women, youths and 
young girls, even those which were not directed by 
Religious of the Society. 

At the suggestion of Father Legris-Duval, the 
Paris Sodality gave birth to the Society of Good 
Works (hospitals, waifs and strays, prisons). It 
was also in the bosom of this Sodality that the 
idea of the Society of Good Studies was conceived ; 
its aim was to sustain the young in the principles 
of Faith and caution them against the temptations 
of the heart no less than against the errors of the 
mind. After Father Legris-Duval, Father Ronsiri 
gave almost a new life to Catholic youth, and one 
of the best fruits of the Sodality was the work of 
St. Francis Regis, due to the initiative of Mr. 
Julius Gossin, Counselor in the Royal Court of 
Paris. 

The following associations must be mentioned as 
having been organized under the influence of Our 
173 



174 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

Lady's Sodality: the Association of St. Joseph, 
one of the first attempts for a workingmen's asso- 
ciation in the 19th century; the Catholic Society of 
Good Books, which at the close of the year 1826 
had put in circulation 800,000 volumes; the House 
of Refuge for Young Criminals, about which de 
Bonald wrote: "When one is incensed by all one 
sees and hears, when one is about to give up all 
hope for France, one must, to calm one's soul, 
look at the different movements undertaken by 
young men, of which my friend and relative, Mr. 
de Roussy, whom I have recommended to you, 
was one of the most fervent instruments. Here, 
they teach Catechism to the little Savoyards, 
whose conduct and sustenance, too, they care for. 
There, they look out for the little wretches sen- 
tenced to several years in prison, almost before 
the age of reason, whose malice is beyond their 
years, and who without work, without instruction, 
abandoned to the vilest corruption of the most de- 
testable and too certain lessons of crime, are 
mingled in the prisons with scoundrels under men 
who literally acknowledge it; poor unfortunates, I 
say, received at the expiration of their term into a 
house managed by the good Christian Brothers. 
By the care and under the superintendence of the 
Young Men's Society, they are instructed in the 
duties of their religion, before being restored to 
society and they are even trained in some profes- 
sion to give them the means to earn their living." 



SLANDER 

The Socialists did too much good not to stir up 
against themselves all the passions and all the anti- 
religious sects. Haunted by the phantom of the 
Sodality, Mr. de Montlosier gave the following 
definition of it, as obscure as it is odious: "It is 
at once an assembly of pious angels, a senate of 
the learned, a home of demons' intrigues." And 
he added: "This mysterious power which, under 
the name of Sodality, figures on the world's stage, 
seems to be as intricate in its composition as in 
its object, as confused in its object as in its origin." 
Improving on this ludicrous nonsense, Michelet 
later on solemnly declared that the Sodalities had 
"betrayed the whole of society to the Jesuits; doc- 
tors yielding up to them family secrets; notaries 
revealing the secrets of fortunes; magistrates se- 
curing them impunity." To which Charles Lacre- 
telle in his Histoire de France depuis la Restau- 
ration, thought it clever to add these absurdities: 
"There existed for more than 10 years a vast so- 
ciety which counted on the Jesuits as spiritual 
leaders and especially as political heads. The So- 
dality received the inheritance of the Royalist se- 
cret societies, sanctifying their turbulent ideas. Its 
wealth was amassed by the liberality of opulent 
piety and by still more ample gifts than even a 
175 



176 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

warmly excited party spirit prompts. Father 
Ronsin was named Superior of the Sodality; all 
was placed under the patronage of St. Ignatius 
Loyola. The devout club had its affiliated socie- 
ties, its connections. One might have said it was 
a Jacobin Club." 

Lastly, M. de Vaulabelle, in his work on Les 
Deux Restaur ations, lifts the veil on the manner in 
which the meetings of the Sodality are held. The 
Sodalists keep their eyes stubbornly fixed on a 
banner; the servers of the Mass "perform very en- 
vied duties, the customary prelude of high political 
and administrative favors." After the Mass, the 
Chapel is transformed into a parlor; all shake 
hands. Finally, the last characteristic detail: Fr. 
Ronsin wears a gold ring and the Sodalists silver 
ones (!). 

"Similar puerilities," adds Mr. de Grandmaison, 
from whom we borrow these details, "are not worth 
discussing; we mention them as a proof of the 
nonsense that party spirit can cause to be writ- 
ten." 

The watch word, however, was given by the sec- 
tarian faction: "The Jesuits and the Sodality." 
According to the Liberals, the Sodality was noth- 
ing else than a governmental laboratory. Their 
peaceable meetings were transformed, in the public 
opinion, into political clubs. Father Ronsin was 
believed to be mixed up in the intrigues of the 
government and to his astonishment found himself 



SLANDER 177 

set up as a sovereign dispenser of the favors of 
authority. A satirical poem, La Ronsiade, was 
written against him, and the humble Religious was 
almost denounced as a public enemy. 

These attacks did not occur without exciting 
weak minds. One day, a young man, elegantly 
dressed, called at the Jesuit House in the Rue de 
Sevres and asked to speak to Father Ronsin. The 
latter arrived and the visitor asked him to his face 
if "This is really he whom they call Ronsin." 
After which he overwhelmed him with injuries. 
The Religious listened to him unmoved. At a loss 
for further invectives, the young insulter demands: 
"Now, why don't you answer me?" — "But," an- 
swers Father Ronsin with the calmest air in the 
world, "you sent for me to hear you; I am listen- 
ing." The poor harebrained creature blushed and 
finished the interview by going to Confession. 

Nevertheless, a compromise was made and Fa- 
ther Ronsin was sacrificed. He departed from 
Paris in 1828, leaving 900 names inscribed on the 
register of the Sodality. Fathers de Rohan and 
Mathieu, who were to succeed one another in the 
See of Besancon and to honor it with the Cardinal's 
purple, received his perilous heritage. At last the 
Revolution of 1830 broke out and the Sodalities 
fell with the monarchy. 



NEW LIFE 

For nearly 20 years, the Sodalities were forced 
to lie dormant here and there in a few little semi- 
naries. The mere name of Sodalist had become an 
offense. An entirely new branch, however, was not 
long in sprouting from their venerable stock. It 
was in 1832 that the first Sodality exclusively for 
young girls was instituted in France by Mother 
Lhuillier, a Religious of the Sacred Heart. The 
Blessed Mother Barat blessed this nascent work 
and with the aid of Father Druillet, S.J., propa- 
gated it in all the boarding schools of her Order. 

As the Church in which the Sodalities are 
grafted, always stands erect again when the tem- 
pest has passed, so the Sodalities of the Blessed 
Virgin reappeared with the first gleams of liberty. 
From 1848 to our own time, their history is writ- 
ten in all memoirs: it presents incidents which, as 
has already been seen here and there in the pre- 
ceding pages, are in no wise inferior to the best 
that the annals of their glorious past offer us. 

To the glory of the Catholic Rhenish Provinces 
we simply must add that it is in them that for the 
past 50 years the men's Sodalities have resumed 
their beneficent activity with the greatest vigor. 
The young men's Sodality at Aix-la-Chapelle, com- 
posed of 200 members, celebrated its golden jubilee 

178 



NEW LIFE 179 

with splendor on 8 Oct., 1905. Eloquent dis- 
courses made known the wide influence it exerted 
on the Catholic social life of the whole region. It 
inaugurated in the cities several other Sodalities, 
each of which counts thousands of men among its 
members. It devoted itself to all works of piety 
and charity: religious lectures, conferences, an- 
nual retreats, Peter's Pence, foreign missions, pub- 
lic libraries, scientific lectures (to which it gave 
an enthusiasm which has been communicated to 
more than 70 other cities) and Sunday schools 
where the Sodalists instruct poor children, not to 
mention the very active part the Sodality took in 
the foundation of commercial unions. 

Austria has not lagged behind in this magnifi- 
cent movement. Vienna alone has 19 Sodalities of 
young men, with 1646 members; 29 of men, with 
2451 members; 29 of young girls with 2842 and 11 
of women with 2058— in all 84 Sodalities, and 8997 
members, of whom 4097 are men or young men. 
These Sodalities are affiliated, according to the 
immemorial custom in Germany, to the Prima 
Primaria. 

At the present time, the German speaking coun- 
tries possess more than 2000 Sodalities, most of 
which are fervent and distinctly built on the three 
traditional foundations of devotion to Mary, in- 
dividual perfection and the apostolate. The re- 
cruiting is done by the selection of the choice souls 
in the different Catholic associations, circles and 



180 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

patronagec. As an example, the Apprentices' Un- 
ion of Mayence may be mentioned, which out of 
360 associates has only 100 Socialists. The same 
board governs Union and Sodality. 



SODALITY PAPERS 

In this historical notice we shall now give a first 
practical conclusion. 1 A few years ago, the ter- 
centenary of the institution of the Sodalities of the 
Blessed Virgin was celebrated and it was com- 
memorated not without solemnity nor a very com- 
forting renewal of devotion. 

All these pious associations undoubtedly have a 
bond in the unity of their spirit and their rules; 
but apart from this, they live isolated from one 
another. Would there not be some advantage in 
making them feel that they are all branches of one 
tree, all members of one family? Would it not be 
a means of developing in each of them a more in- 
tense zeal to fulfil the purpose which their founder 
designed for them, of animating them with a gen- 
erous emulation to cause new shoots to bud on the 
common trunk? It is to this idea that we owe the 
Sodalen C orrespondenz jur Marianische Congrega- 
tionen, a monthly review, the first number of which 
appeared at Vienna, Austria, on 25 March, 1896, 
Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin. 

In the leading article, Father Henry Abel, S.J., 

1 We borrow the idea and even the terms of Father 
Sommervogel, S.J., the well-known author of the Biblio- 
theque de la Compagnie de Jesus. 
181 



182 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

briefly indicated what the Sodality organ was go- 
ing to contain: 

1. Briefs, privileges, decisions issued by the Sov- 
ereign Pontiffs or by ecclesiastical Superiors as 
well as all that concerns the existence and organi- 
zation of the Sodalities; 

2. The general or local history of the Sodalities; 

3. Information about their actual condition, their 
feasts, the works of piety or of zeal to which they 
specially devote themselves; 

4. Obituary notices of deceased members; 

5. Reports concerning the devotion to the 
Blessed Virgin, either at the present time or in the 
past; 

6. Questions requiring answers to special difficul- 
ties ; 

7. Lastly, notices of works recommended to 
Sodalists. 

The first number of the Correspondenz realized 
this plan in almost every point. After Father 
AbePs article: "What do we want?" Father Duhr 
discussed with the reader the question of the lay 
apostolate in the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin, 
then Father Charles Ludwig published the com- 
mencement of a work on the members of the Haps- 
burg family who belonged to the Sodality. In the 
third section, a correspondent from Rome spoke 
of the Chapel of the Prima Primaria Sodality ; an- 
other spoke of the Sodality of the ladies of Vienna 
under the title of the Immaculate Conception, 



SODALITY PAPERS 183 

founded in 1854 by Father Schmude; still another 
told of the erection of that of Linz; a fourth, of 
that of Salzburg. There followed felicitations and 
encouragement from Gratz and Innsbruck; then 
came a few news items, an obituary notice, certain 
questions and answers, lastly some books recom- 
mended. Two illustrations embellished the num- 
ber, the painting that adorns the Prima Primaria 
Chapel in Rome, and a fine portrait of the Arch- 
duke Charles II, the first of the Hapsburg Sodal- 
ists. 

With the years this review has continued de- 
veloping. It has taken as chief title: Under the 
Banner of Mary, and distinguished itself by a so- 
lidity of doctrine, a variety of documents, and a 
practical sense which make it a most efficacious 
instrument for direction and propaganda. 

In 1907, a new bulletin, the Prasides Correspon- 
denz (Directors' Correspondence), came to com- 
plete the first. Intended for Priests, it assumes a 
more serious and technical character. 

These two periodicals are directed by the Jesuits, 
on whom the principal, though certainly not ex- 
clusive, care of the Sodalities of Our Lady is in- 
cumbent. 

We may add, with Sommervogel, that the So- 
dalen Correspondent deserves to be suggested to the 
Sodalists of other countries for imitation. What 
would prevent the publication of accounts of So- 
dalities in English, Flemish, French, Italian, Span- 



184 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

ish, etc.? Certainly it is not for lack of subject- 
matter to maintain them, that they do not exist. 
If a little zeal and perseverance were everywhere 
employed to carry out this idea, in the end the 
necessary materials for writing a History of the 
Sodality would be gathered together, because this, 
we may conclude by saying, is the final purpose 
which the Austrian-German review has in view. 
For it the work will be easier than for others. 
Austria, Bohemia, Germany, Hungary, during the 
17th and 18th centuries produced a considerable 
number of works on or for the Sodalities, for the 
Xenia, or New Year's gifts alone, distributed each 
year to the associates, form a precious and inter- 
esting collection. 

This wish has been partly realized. Some other 
bulletins really do exist — still too few, however — 
of the Sodalities of the Blessed Virgin. 

We may mention specially the Roman Stella 
Matutina, the Hungarian Mdria-Kongregdcio, the 
Polish Sodalis Marianus, the German Marienburg 
and the United States The Queen's Work. 



SODALITY CONGRESSES 

Besides the press, the Sodality Congresses must 
be named as the most apt means of all to promote 
Marian associations. The German-speaking So- 
dalities give us magnificent examples in this re- 
spect. Since 1896, a Sodalentag is held almost 
every year in one or other of the important cities 
— notably in Salzburg, Austria, 1896; Vienna, 1897; 
Altotting, Bavaria, 1899; Mariazell, Austria, 1900; 
Fribourg, Switzerland, 1902; Mannheim, Baden, 
1902: Cologne, Prussia, 1903; Rome, 1904; Einsie- 
deln, Switzerland, 1906; Linz, Austria, 1907. Nu- 
merous delegations are seen flocking to them, eager 
to hear the captivating and above all practical 
eloquence of choice orators. Thus it was at the 
Linz Congress in 1907, where 200 Sodalities were 
represented. The splendor of these gatherings is 
not astonishing when it is remembered that the 
Sodalities of Our Lady are one of the living forces 
of Catholic Austria. In that country they main- 
tain the solidity of religious convictions, the prac- 
tise of the Sacraments, the coherence of the Catho- 
lic elements, the spirit of discipline and of fellow- 
ship which keep Christian societies from disintegra- 
tion and ruin. 

A brief account of the Sodalentag of Linz will 
show the reader what these celebrations are. 
185 



186 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

Omitting the splendid procession and the open- 
ing ceremonies, we find ourselves at the first ses- 
sion. 

"There one feels oneself really in the presence of 
an extraordinary moral force," writes an eye-wit- 
ness, "which a perfectly constructed machine, set 
in motion by master workmen, develops." Among 
the workmen, the place of honor belongs indisput- 
ably to a Jesuit whose name is a synonym among 
the Catholics of Vienna for indefatigable zeal and 
cheerful activity. A stranger might accuse the 
papers of bombast when they commonly call him 
"the great man of the people," and he might also 
be astonished at the frantic applause that makes 
the hall tremble, when the President of the So- 
dalentag introduces Father Abel, S.J. There is no 
need of listening long to learn his importance and 
to be carried away together with all the auditors 
by the good sense, clearness and apostolic energy of 
his eloquence. "In what do the actual task and 
practical activity of the Marian Sodalities for 
men consist?" Such is the subject of his speech 
which comprises the entire program of the Con- 
gress. 

This task, the orator resumed in four words: 
"Apostolate, charity, defensive, offensive." 

"But whence must the energy to accomplish the 
task be drawn?" This was the purpose of an ad- 
dress by another Jesuit, Father Hofmann, S.J., a 
Professor at the Innsbruck University. He pointed 



SODALITY CONGRESSES 187 

out that the great secret of being a true Socialist 
and Catholic man of action, is the care and prac- 
tise of the Interior Life, which alone forms the 
character. 

These were what might be termed the platform 
speeches of the Congress. On the following days 
other orators followed each other, considering the 
Marian Sodalities under their divers aspects. 
Young men's Sodalities had a very large part. Fa- 
ther Herkenrath, S.J., of Feldkirch College in the 
Tyrol called particular attention to the young 
workingmen's Sodalities. 

"To-day," the orator said, "during the decisive 
period which extends over the years between 14 
and 24, the young laborer is exposed, almost alone, 
to the greatest perils for his soul, in the face of 
exigencies considerably greater in the struggle for 
life, than those of former times; he claims, there- 
fore, the warmest solicitude. 

"Can the Sodality assume this care in all its 
extent, and ought it to do so? Yes, and its motto 
ought to be 'All things to all men.' To realize that, 
there are 3 conditions: 

"1. The selection of a choice group into which 
at the end of school all the elements of a model 
Sodality may be introduced; 

"2. The careful formation of the Sodalists in an 
irreproachable religious life, without which all else 
will be of no value; 

"3. Preparation for active participation in the 



188 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

lay apostolate, by instruction in apologetics, by 
practical studies in social economy, by a general 
training, without forgetting sport, which refreshes 
the mind and strengthens the body." 

Then came the turn of the Sodalities in the gram- 
mar schools, a question which a suspicious policy 
makes a delicate one in that country. Father And- 
lau, S.J., Rector of the great College of Kalksburg, 
near Vienna, had to commence by making it clear 
that Sodalities do not come legally under the laws 
that govern civil associations. A hot discussion 
followed, which ended to the advantage of the 
learned lecturer. 

Distinguished secular Priests also spoke, such as 
the deputy of Baden, Dr. Schofer, who for the past 
12 years had directed the Sodality of the Univer- 
sity of Freiburg in Breisgau. 

"During the period of the maturity examination" 
(the French baccalaureat) , he justly remarked, 
"until their entrance into public life, students are 
too much neglected. They require Priests to attend 
to them specially and exclusively, and the best form 
which these Priests can give to their ministry is the 
Sodality. By it these young men will be effica- 
ciously protected against the bad influence of the 
society in which they are condemned to live, 
against Bacchus and Venus. Are these Sodalities 
possible? Undoubtedly, since some already exist. 
In fact their foundation presents but one serious 
difficulty, that of an observant Director." Of a 



SODALITY CONGRESSES 189 

truth, a most important question, that of Director, 
and so it was the object of much exchange of 
opinion. The speakers were intent on bringing out 
the fact that a Sodality governed by a good Di- 
rector was a well-piloted boat which in calm 
weather goes straight ahead and when a storm 
rumbles, fights victoriously against the waves. 

The closing of the Sodalentag was a most solemn 
event. 

"On entering the immense hall into which 4000 
persons were crowded," says Father Brucker, "my 
attention was first of all drawn to the presidential 
platform. At the back, standing out in relief 
against hangings in the Papal colors, surrounded 
by a forest of flowers and flooded with electric 
light, I perceived the- white statue of Our Lady 
of Lourdes, on the right the calm and smiling face 
of the Holy Father, on the left the bust of the Em- 
perior Francis Joseph II who had answered the 
courteous message of the Congress by the follow- 
telegram: 'His Imperial and Royal Apostolic Maj- 
esty thanks the Sodalities for their patriotic hom- 
age and pious wishes.' " 

Then Mr. Ebenhoch, the Governor of Upper Aus- 
tria, of which Linz is the capital, himself a fervent 
Sodalist, rose to resume in a masterly address the 
work of the Congress. He concluded in this man- 
ner: 

"And lastly there is an essential point which all 
the orators have brought out with great reason, 



190 THE SODALITY OF OUR LADY 

namely, that for every success prayer is necessary. 
When King Philip Augustus of France, sailing 
towards the Holy Land, was passing the coast of 
Sicily, a fearful tempest arose. Already the sailors 
were losing courage; they failed in their duties and 
the fleet was on the verge of perishing. At that 
moment, the Prince appeared before them and 
said: 'At any rate, hold on till 12, for at midnight 
the monks of Clairvaux rise and pray for France 
and for the King.' At midnight, indeed, the tem- 
pest abated and the fleet was able to pursue its 
course. In our times, too, the storm is gathering 
over our heads. The powers of evil are rising 
against the good, and victory may, indeed, seem 
doubtful to us. Well, weak as is my voice, I, too, 
should like to cry out to all Catholics: 'Hold fast, 
hold fast in the struggle, because the Sodalists pray 
without ceasing; their Memorares will obtain for 
you the strength to fight bravely and the grace to 
conquer for God and for his Church.' " 

Among the resolutions approved by the Sodalentag 
is the following one: "The Congress board shall 
address to His Holiness in the name of all the Ger- 
man Sodalities represented at Linz a respectful pe- 
tition for the speedy beatification of the first 
martyr Sodalist, the Jesuit James Sales, put to 
death in 1593 by the Calvinists of Aubenas for 
defending the dogma of the Real Presence." 

Some time afterwards, Mr. Ebenhoch became a 
member of the Austrian Ministry. Mr. Beck, the 



SODALITY CONGRESSES 191 

President of the Cabinet, was himself a Socialist of 
Our Lady. Happy are the nations while they are 
governed by such men. 



THE END 



INDEX 



Abel, Father, at Linz Congress, 
186. 

Academic Sodalities, 18'8. 

Academies, account of early, 
28 f ; in Barcelona Sodality, 
100. 

Africa, Sodalities, 132 f. 

Aggregation, Paris Sodality 
after 1800, 155. 

Aix, Sodalities, 58 ; Parliament 
enters Sodality, 135. 

Aix-la-Chapelle, number of 
members, 84 ; Sodality, 178 f. 

Altar, splendor in Nobles' So- 
dality at Naples, 41. 

Altotting, number of members, 
84; Tilly Sodalist, 138. 

Amiens, vocations, 31. 

Amusement, omitted at Barce- 
lona, ]00. 

Anderledy, Father, praise of 
Sodalities, 23 f. 

Andlau, Father, at Linz Con- 
gress, 188. 

Annunciation, history of church 
of at Rome, 27 f. 

Antwerp, vocations, 31 ; Sodali- 
ties, 106 f. 

Armand, Huron Sodalist, 123 f. 

Auger, Father Edmund, Di- 
rector, 29 ; rules of his So- 
dality, 50. 

Austria, numbers in Sodality, 
84 ; Princes Sodalists, 138. 

Avignon, vocations, 31 ; Sodali- 
ties, 57 f. 

Baden, Princes, Sodalists, 138. 
Bagot, Father, Director, 52 f. 
Bailleul, Sodalist at Paris, 164. 
Balde, Father Henry, Director 

at Brussels, 108. 
Barcelona, Sodalities, 98. 
Bavaria, rulers Sodalists, 137. 
Beginnings, 25. 
Belgium, Sodalities, 105 ff. 
Benedict XIV, praise of the So- 



dality, 9 ff. ; member of the 
Sodality, 11. 

Binet, Father, results of Sodali- 
ties, 146 ff. 

Bohemia, Sodalities, 90. 

Bordeaux, Parliament enters 
Sodality, 135. 

Bordier, Father James, Di- 
rector, 31. 

Borromeo, St. Charles, fosters 
Sodalities, 16 f. 

Borromeo, Card. Frederick, So- 
dalist, 134. 

Boudon, Henry, Sodalist, 55. 

Bourbon Princes Sodalists, 137. 

Bratkowski, Father Stephen, 
Director at Cracow, 96. 

Brussels, Sodalities, 105 f. ; 
oath to defend the Immacu- 
late Conception, 108. 

Buisson, Regis, Sodalist at 
Paris, 163. 

Cabarrasi, Father Sebastian, 
Director, 29. 

Caen, social work, 64 ff. 

Campion, B. Edmund, Director, 
30. 

Canada, Sodalities, 114. 

Canisius, B. Peter, Director, 
30 ; devotion of Sodality to 
him at Fribourg and his to 
it, 81 f., 83. 

Carrafa, Ven. Vincent, Di- 
rector at Naples, 37 ff. 

Casanas, Card., commends Bar- 
celona Congress, 101 ff. 

Castile, Council of, and Sodal- 
ity, 134 f. 

Catechism work at Caen, 79 f. 

Cauchy, Augustine, Sodalist at 
Paris, 158 ff. 

Celi, Father, Father Sal§s the 
first Sodalist martyr, 25 f. 

Centenary of 1884 described, 
12 ff. 

Charity of Sodality at Naples, 



193 



194 



INDEX 



34 ; works at Rouen, 61 f. ; 

Section at St. Acheul, 63 f. 
Charles, Prince, Sodalist, 135 f. 
Chaumonot, Father, Director of 

Huron Sodality, 118 ff. 
China, Sodalities, 111 ff. 
Cholera at Maastricht, 110 f. 
Classes all in Sodalities, 32. 
Clerics' Sodality at Naples, 33. 
Conde, Louis de, Sodalist at 

Paris, 137. 
Conference of Mary at In- 

golstadt, 87 ff. 
Cologne, Sodalities, 85 ff. 
Congress at Barcelona in 1904, 

101 ff. ; Congresses, 185 ff. 
Consecration, Act of, in Father 

Coster's Manual, 85 ; Act at 

Paris after 1800, 154. 
Constantinople, Sodality, 130. 
Cordova, Sodality, 103 f. 
Coster, Father, Director, 29 ; 

Manual, 85 ; reparation to 

Our Lady at Antwerp, 107. 
Counter-Reformation in Ger- 
many due to Sodalities, 89 f. 
Cracow, Sodalities, 92 ff. 
Croiset, Father John, Director 

of a women's Sodality at 

Marseilles, 169 ff. 

De Bartynowski, Maryan, quot- 
ed on Polish Sodalities, 91. 

De Bausset, Card., quoted, 62 f. 

De Breteuil, Charles, Sodalist 
at Paris, 164. 

De Bussy, Father, Director at 
St. Acheul, 63. 

De Conti, Armand, Sodalist at 
Paris, 137. 

De Forbin-Janson, Charles Au- 
gustus, Sodalist at Paris, 
165 f. 

De Gontaut-Biron, Sodalist at 
Constantinople, 130. 

De Grandmaison quoted in de- 
fence of Sodalities, 176 

De Laval, Mgr., Mass for the 
Sodality at Quebec, 116. 

De Lidelle, Father Claude, Di- 
rector, 60 f. 

Delpuits, Father John Baptist, 
Director at Paris, 153 ff. 

De Meurs, Sodalist, 54. 

De Montlosier, slander against 
Sodality, 175 ff. 

De Montmorency, Francis, So- 
dalist, 54. 



De Rhodes, Father Alexander, 
Seminary of Foreign Mis- 
sions, 52 ff. 

De Sales, St. Francis, exhorts 
seculars to join Sodalities, 
16; Sodality at Paris, 47 
ff. 

De Tracy, Marquis, Sodalist at 
Quebec, 116. 

De Vaulabelle, slander against 
the Sodality, 176 f. 

D'Haranguiers de Quincerot, 
Augustus, Sodalist at Paris, 
164. 

Dijon, Sodalities, 58 ; Parlia- 
ment enters Sodality, 135. 

Dismissals numerous at Bar- 
celona, 101. 

Dispensary for poor at Caen, 
71. 

Douai, Vocations, 30 ; Sodali- 
ties, 106. 

Duels, Sodalist work against, 
at Cracow, 96. 

Duplessis, John, Sodalist at 
Paris, 164. 

Ebenhoch at Linz Congress, 

189 f. 
Emery Nicolas, Sodalist at 

Paris, 164. 
Emmanuel of Savoy Sodalist, 

136. 
Evora, Sodalities, 105. 

Faith, Profession of, in Father 
Coster's Sodality at Cologne, 
85. 

Fayardo, Dom Pietro, words on 
Paraguay Sodalities, 113. 

Ferdinand II, Sodalist, 89. 

Ferdinand II, Emperor, Sodal- 
ist, 138 f. 

Ferdinand III Sodalist at Lou- 
vain, 139 f. 

Fermanel, Sodalist, 55. 

Fervor Sodality of, 30. 

Filippazzi, Father Anthony, Di- 
rector in Sicily, 35 f. 

Fiter, Father Aloysius, Director 
at Barcelona, 99. 

Fizeau, Louis, Sodalist at 
Paris, 163. 

Foreign Missions, Seminary of, 
51 ff. 

Forty Hours at Seville, 104. 

Fourier, St. Peter, Sodalist, 
150. 



INDEX 



195 



Frain de la Villegontier, 
Charles, Sodalist at Paris, 
163. 

France, Sodalities, 47 ff. 

Franche Comte, Parliament en- 
ters Sodality, 135. 

Francis II of Lorraine, Sodal- 
ist, 135. 

Fribourg, Sodalities, 81 ff; 
Young Men's Sodality, 90. 

Fribourg Congress, report on 
Polish Sodalities, 91 ff. 



Galicia, Sodalities of rural pro- 
prietors, 97. 

Generals, Jesuit, praise of So- 
dalities, 23 f. 

German Countries, Sodalities, 
179 f. 

Germany, Sodalities, 80 ff. 

Good Friends, Association of, 
54 ff. 

Gosselet, Peter, Sodalist in Can- 
ada, 116 f. 

Granada, Sodality, 103. 

Grenoble, Parliament enters 
Sodality, 135. 



Herkenratb, Father, at Linz 
Congress, 187 f. 

Hieronymo, St. Francis, Di- 
rector at Naples, 36, 148 f. 

Hofmann, Father, at Linz Con- 
gress, 186. 

Holland, Sodalities, 109 ff. 

Hospital work in Sodality of 
Nobles at Naples, 39 f. ; at 
Paris, 50; at St. Acheul, 
64. 

Hurons, Sodality, 118 ff. 



Immaculate Conception, oath to 

defend, 107 f. 
Indulgence for Father Coster's 

Manual, 85. 
Ingolstadt, Sodalities, 87 ff. 
Italy, Sodalities, 33 ff. 

Jansenists persecute the Sodal- 
ity, 141 f. 

Jesuits, Suppression of, and 
Sodalities, 152 ff. 

Jogues, Isaac, Sodalist, 54. 

Joly, Etienne, and the Paris 
waifs, 51. 



John IV, Sodalist, 104 f. 

Kostka, St. Stanislaus, Sodal- 
ist at Vienna, 90. 

Ladislas IV, Sodalist, 136. 

Laennec, Sodalist at Paris, 162. 

Lawyers' Sodality at Seville, 
104. 

Le Bien Publique quoted on the 
centenary of 1884 at Rome, 
13 f. 

Legris-Duval, Father, Director 
at Paris, 166 f. 

Lemberg, Sodalities, 97. 

Leo. XIII, praise of the Sodal- 
ity, 11 ; audience to officers 
of the Prima Primaria, in 
1884, 14 f. 

Leunis, Father, founder at 
Rome, 25 f . ; at Paris, 47. 

Liguori, St. Alphonsus de, 
words on Sodality, 16 ff. 

Lille, oath to defend the Im- 
maculate Conception, 108. 

Linz Sodality Congress, 185 ff. 

Lipsius, Justus, Sodalist, 147. 

Lisbon, Sodalities, 105. 

Loan of money, Caen, 65 f. 

Lorraine, Princes of, in Paris 
Sodality, 50. 

Louvain, vocations, 31 ; Sodali- 
ties, 105 f. ; Sodalist sol- 
diers, 143. 

Lyons, Sodalities, 56 f., 168. 

Maastricht, Workingmen's So- 
dality, 109. 

Madrid, Sodality, 103. 

Majorca, Montesion College So- 
dality, 98. 

Maldonatus, Father, Director, 
30. 

Malines, Sodalities, 105. 

Manila, Sodality, 104. 

Manual of Father Coster, 85. 

Marseilles, Sodality of Nobles, 
58 f. ; women's Sodalities, 
169 ff. 

Mastrilli, Father, Director of 
Nobles' Sodality at Rome, 44. 

Maximilian of Bavaria, Sodal- 
ist, 89. 

Maximilian I, Sodalist 138. 

Meditation at meetings in Can- 
ada, 117. 

Membership of Sodalities in 
Germany, 84. 



196 



INDEX 



Metz, Parliament enters Sodal- 
ity, 135. 

Mission, Brothers of the, 36. 

Montmorency-Laval, Duke of, 
Sodalist at Paris, 165. 

Montreal, Men's Sodality, 114. 

Mortified, Sodality of the, 35 f. 

Mother, Thrice Admirable at 
Ingolstadt, 88 f. 

Naples, a Sodalist punished for 
neglect, 21 ; vocations, 30 ; 
Sodalities, 33 ; later Sodali- 
ties, 36. 

Napoleon, Bull of excommuni- 
cation, 166. 

Neuburg, Counts of, Sodalists, 
137. 

Nobles, Sodality of, at Naples, 
37 ff. 

Oblates, at Naples, 34. 

Pachonk, John, Huron Prefect, 
124 f. 

Palermo, Sodality of Nobles, 
44 f. 

Papers, Sodality, 181 ff. 

Paraguay, Sodalities, 113 f. 

Paris, Sodalities, 47 ff. ; Sodal- 
ity and the Huron Sodality, 
127 ff. ; Sodality after 1800, 

153 ff. ; power to aggregate, 
155 f. 

Pavone, Father, Director, 33. 
Peking, Sodality, 111. 
Persecution, 141 ff. 
Peter's Pence from Cracow, 96. 
Pius VII and Paris Sodality, 

154 ff. 

Plock, Sodality, 92. 

Poets, Sodalists, 140. 

Poire, Director and writer on 
Our Lady, 57 f. 

Poland, Sodalities, 90 ff. 

Poncet, Father, Director at 
Quebec, 115 ff. 

Pontarlier, Sodalities, 58. 

Poor, visits to, 67 f. ; visited 
at Caen, 67 f. 

Popes, Sodalists, 139. 

Popoli, Duke of, esteem of So- 
dality, 134. 

Port Maurice, St. Leonard of, 
Sodalist, 149. 

Portugal, Sodalities. 104 f. 

Priests' Sodality at Cologne, 
87 : at Seville, 104. 



Prima Primaria, three hun- 
dredth anniversary described, 
12 ff. ; preserved at suppres- 
sion of Jesuits, 152 ff. ; di- 
visions, 28. 

Princes, Sodalists, 137 ff. 

Prisoners, work in Sodality of 
Nobles at Naples, 40 ; at 
Palermo, 44 f. ; at Paris, 50 ; 
helped at Rouen, 62 ; cared 
for at Caen, 70 f., 77 f. ; at 
Cordova, 103 ; young cared 
for, 174. 

Prominent Sodalists, 134 ff. 

Quebec, Men's Sodality, 114 ff. 

Raiato, Father Francis, Di- 
rector at Palermo, 44. 

Ratisbon, number of members, 
84. 

Reconciliations, work of, in 
Nobles' Sodality at Rome, 44. 

Rem, Ven. James, Director, 29, 
87 ff. 

Rennes, Sodalities, 58 ; Parlia- 
ment enters Sodality, 135. 

Results of Sodality, 146 ff. 

Retreat yearly in Nobles' So- 
dality at Naples. 41 ; for 
girls at Caen, 70 ; annually 
at Cracow, 96. 

Rome, beginnings of the So- 
dality, 25 ff. ; first Rules, 
26 f. ; Sodality of Nobles, 
43 f. ; modern Sodalities, 
46 f. 

Roger, Father, Director at 
Lyons, 168. 

Ronsin, Father, Director at 
Paris, 168 ; attacked, 176 f. 

Rothenflue, Father, Director at 
Aix-la-Chapelle, 84. 

Rouen, vocations, 31; Court of 
Mary, 55 f. ; Sodalities, 
59 ff. ; works of Gentlemen's 
Sodality, 61 f . ; Parliament 
enters Sodality, 135. 

Sacred Heart Sodalities, 178. 

Sailors and fishermen, Sodal- 
ity at Naples, 34. 

St. Acheul, Charity Section, 
63 f. 

Saints, words on Sodality, 
16 ff. ; in Sodality, 148 ff. 



INDEX 



197 



Sails, Father James, martyr 
Sodalist, 25 f. ; beatification 
petitioned by Linz Congress, 
190. 

Sambor, Sodality of propri- 
etors, 97 f. 

Savary des Brulons, Charles, 
Sodalist at Paris, 163 f. 

Savoy, Parliament enters So- 
dality, 135. 

Savoyards, Sodality care of, 
51. 

Scarisbrick, Father Edward, 
Director in England, 30. 

Schiaffino, Mgr., discourse at 
centenary of 1S84, 14. 

Schofer, Dr., at Linz Congress, 
188 f. 

Secret Sodality, account, 19 f. ; 
of Father Carrafa, 41 ff. 

Sections, in Barcelona Sodality, 
99 f. 

Servants, Sodality at Paris, 50. 

Seville, Sodalities, 104. 

Sick cared for at Caen, 69. 

Sigismund III, Sodalist, 136. 

Slander, 175. 

Smyrna, Sodality, 130 ff. 

Social lectures at Cracow, 95. 

Sodalen Correspondenz, 181 ff. 

Sodalis Marianus edited by 
Cracow Sodalists, 96. 

Sodalities, growth and numbers, 
31 ff. 

Soldiers, Sodalities of, perse- 
cuted, 141 ff. ; Sodalists, 
142 ff. ; Sodality at Paris, 
144 f. 

Spain, Sodalities, 98 ff. ; Kings 
of, Sodalists, 137. 

Spanish American Congress of 
1904, 101 ff. 

Spinelli, Father Anthony, Di- 
rector at Naples, 29. 



Syracuse, Sodality, 35 f. 



Tesseyre, Paul Emile, Sodalist 

at Paris, 164. 
Tilly, Sodalist, 89, 138. 
Tong-Kia-Tou, letter to Prima 

Primaria, 112 f. 
Trades taught for boys, 68 f. 
Treasure, spiritual, at Fri- 

bourg, 81 ff. 
Turkey, Sodalities, 130 ff. 

Vagabonds, work among, at 
Cordova, 104. 

Vandemont, Prince, Sodalist at 
Nancy, 135. 

Veillet, Sodalist at Paris, 164. 

Vienna, Sodalities, 79, 90 f. 

Villafrate, Father Peter, Di- 
rector at Palermo, 30. 

Villars, testimony to soldier 
Sodalists, 142. 

Vincent de Paul, St., Sodalists 
cooperate with Conference 
at Cracow, 96 ; in Confer- 
ences, 97. 

Vitelleschi, Father, praise of 
Sodality, 23. 

Vocations from Father Spinel- 
li's Sodality, 29 ; from Fa- 
ther Cabarrasi's Sodality, 
29 f. ; from Father Villa- 
frate's Sodality, 30 ; in vari- 
ous places, 31 f. ; many at 
Paris, 49. 



William III of Bavaria, Sodal- 
ist, 137. 

Women, Sodalities before 1824, 
169 ff. 

Works originating in Sodali- 
ties, 173 f. 



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